No pitch battle for Dalbeattie Star as they see off Upper Annandale

Don’t mention the pitch.

That was the message from Dalbeattie Star boss Eddie Warwick to his players ahead of Saturday’s trip to Upper Annandale.

And he clearly got his point across as his side ran out 3-0 winners to make the semi-finals of the Haig Gordon Cup.

Warwick said: “It is what it is, it’s a grass pitch, it’s winter and we play in Scotland.

“I don’t want my players to have excuses, I want them to be adaptable and to adjust to whatever situation or scenario is thrown in front of them.

“It’s never easy up there, on any surface at this time of year, and I gave them a good talking to that not a single person was to mention the pitch the whole day.

“Credit to them, not one person moaned about it. A good workman never blames his tools – it’s the same for both teams and we have to turn up and be professional.

“The last two weeks on heavy pitches, we’ve put in professional performances and managed to get through.”

Dale Milligan opened the scoring for Star after the Uppers goalie failed to hold a Connor Potts’ shot.

Uppers were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when Cammy Shaw was brought down in the box by Michael Swan, who was given his marching orders. While Milligan’s penalty was saved, Declan Rogerson popped home the rebound.

Soon after, Milligan made amends when he bagged his second and Star’s third to kill things off.

Star goalie Robbie Minto then saved a penalty from Julien Kouame before Uppers were reduced to nine men when Kouame was shown a second yellow card.

Warwick said: “We made changes to the starting 11 from the previous week and used all five subs so lots of players had game time.

“It’s something we’ve been working on the whole season and I was looking at it again on