Tynecastle 2

EoS FIRST DIVISION

MAURICE GORDON reports from Whitestone Park

PEEBLES' slump in form continued on Saturday, with Tynecastle running out convincing winners.The winning margin could easily have been a lot more than two goals.
However, from an Andrew Martin right-wing cross, Kerr Dodds came close to giving Peebles an early lead with a blistering shot on the volley from 12yds.

But it was Tynecastle who opened the scoring after seven minutes. Peebles keeper Darren Walker parried an 18-yard Robbie Arthur shot into the path of Ross Allum, who calmly slotted the hall home from close range at an acute angle.

Then both Darren Aird and Dean Summers were just wide of the mark with good efforts, while at the other end, from a Paul Greenhill pass, Dodds fired the ball just over the crossbar with a first-time shot.

After Chris Graham and Gareth Thom were off-target with their attempted headers, a neat Tynecastle build-up which involved Benji Antoni and David Keogh, Allum sent the ball inches wide of the post with a rasping drive.

But Allum was on target just before half-time when he made a menacing run into the Peebles box and beat a helpless Walker with a cracking shot for his second.

After the break, Walker saved well from Stephen McKenzie and Paul Devlin almost found the target with a cute chip, before Peebles were reduced to 10 men in the 53rd minute – substitute Michael Moffat sent off for a stamping tackle on Steven Sives.

Peebles' assistant manager Rab Paget was also sent to the stand after giving the referee a piece of his mind.

Then with 13 minutes remaining, one of the best Peebles efforts of the second half came from Martin, who made an excellent run into the Tynecastle box before blasting the ball over the visitors' crossbar.

The Whitestone Park men are still in second place and should still have a shot for promotion, but they will have to put this poor run of form behind them soon as third-placed Civil Service Strollers are hanging onto their coat tails with the same amount of points.

Peebles: D. Walker, K. Robertson (M. Moffat 27 mins), G. Thom, G. Tainsh, P. Russell (J. Robertson 27 mins), K. Dodds, P. Greenhill, C. Graham (G. Harley 45 mins), A. Martin, P. Devlin and M. Brown.