RHU Amateurs boss Gordon Brodie hailed his players for digging deep to secure a share of the spoils on Saturday - despite two injuries to important players during the match.

Leading scorer Jamie Paterson earned Brodie's Caledonian League squad a battling 1-1 draw away to Alva - and the manager praised the "determination and willingness" of his squad as they bounced back from the disappointment of their 5-0 defeat against Drumchapel seven days earlier. 

With a few regulars missing, Dylan Caldow, Reece Beaton and Luke Godwin were summoned from the club’s Colts squad to make the step up – and all three grabbed the opportunity with both hands, making impressive debuts, with Beaton very unlucky not to grab all three points for the visitors when he hit a strike from all of 30 yards only to see it crash off the bar.

Against an Alva side on the fringes of the promotion places in their first season in the Caledonian League, Rhu created plenty of first half chances – but were punished when some slack defending let in Alva’s number nine to give the hosts the half-time lead.

After the break, Rhu’s task became even tougher when striker Luke Evans limped off with a bad looking leg injury - but his replacement, Jordan Wyllie, made an instant impact when he was bundled over in the box and top goalscorer Jamie Paterson slammed the ball home for his 12th goal of the season.

In the dying minutes, with Rhu pushing for the winner, captain Lewis Campbell had to be withdrawn with a dislocated shoulder after a very contentious referee decision that could have given the visitors all three points – but with no substitutes available the 10 Rhu players all put in extra effort in the closing stages to secure a hard-earned point.

Brodie said: "The management asked for a reaction from the boys after last week's disappointment and we certainly got what we asked for. 

“The boys played some great football from the back to front, creating numerous chances and were unlucky not be in a commanding lead in the first half.

“The team talk at half time was a simple one this week – we asked the boys to keep playing the way we are and give maximum effort to get back in the game.

“In the final stages the home started to go route one to capitalise on Rhu being down to 10 men, but some determined defending saw the game finish 1-1.

“This was a tremendous reaction from everyone in the squad.

“[There was] some great football matched with a real determination and willingness from everyone to rectify last week’s disappointment.

“We hope for a speedy recovery for both Evans and Campbell.”

This Saturday, November 25, sees Brodie’s men face probably the toughest test of their Caledonian League campaign so far when they travel to Denny to take on a Dunipace Amateurs side who have won all 10 of their league games so far and are six points clear at the top of the table as a result.

Kick-off at Westfield Park is at 1.30pm.