Jed victory follows tribute to club stalwart

In the Borders Amataur Football Association, Jed virutally ensured their ‘A’ Division status after coming from behind to score a last-gasp win over fellow strugglers Stow.

A minute’s silence was observed in memory of club stalwart Jake Wiffin, with many of his family and friends turning out to remember him and the great service he gave to the club.

Jed hit back to take the points with a couple of goals from Ash Langford in the final five minutes, after Stow had taken a first-half lead.

Legion side could have been ahead inside 30 seconds, noted the club’s Facebook page, when a cross found Gillie unmarked in the box, but his acrobatic effort was fired over.

A few moments later, the outcome was similar when Gillie was played in – his attempted lob again was wide of the target.

Stow were looking more likely to break the deadlock and had a couple of decent chances, plus a claim for a penalty, before going ahead.

A long ball was played into the box, with Legion’s and Jack and Page failing to deal with the initial danger.

The ball fell kindly to Stow defender Mikey Moody, who slotted home into an empty net to give his team an interval lead.

Jed needed to improve their game in the second half and they started to see more possession.

Stow always looked dangerous on the break as Jed pushed for an equaliser but the best chances fell to the home team.

Langford passed up a great opportunity midway through the half as the ball was fed to him six yards out, with an open goal ahead, but the ball was just behind him and he couldn’t get enough on his effort to steer the ball home.

Youngsters Toby Reid and Jamie Palmer were introduced into proceedings and both had great chances to level, with Reid hitting the bar direct from a corner and Jamie almost squeezing the ball home from 12 yards, but for a last-ditch clearance.

Jed were starting to run out of ideas but, with five minutes remaining, a long, diagonal ball into the box was not dealt with by the Stow keeper and Langford finished well from a tight angle.

Jed, however, were not content with a draw and went searching for a winner. Their chance arrived when Langford was brought down in the box with a minute to go – and the striker duly fired home the winner from the spot to earn Jed a 2-1 victory.

A further comment on the Facebook page said : “A fitting way to remember a great man and it was great to see the clubhouse busy after the game, as Billy Gillies remembered his good friend with a touching tribute.”