Melrose ended this fractious, feisty contest with two players in the sin- bin and no place in the BT Cup.

But with a little more discipline and level-headed-ness the Borderers could well have pushed this third-round tie into extra time. Not that anyone at Old Anniesland believed they actually deserved it.

Melrose were on top for a few minutes at the start and a few more at the end, but for most of the hour in between they were a distant second best to the fired-up Hawks. The Glasgow pack dom- inated the scrums and outmuscled their opponents everywhere else.

It was to Melrose's credit that they kept their hosts' tally so low, but for long periods they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth. It was no coincidence that the Hawks looked so determined.

In their final league match of 2014, they had lost 14-13 to Melrose at the Greenyards, and they have fumed over that result ever since, adamant that they were refereed out of the contest.

Whether their interpretation was correct or not is moot; the significant thing is that they have been fired by a sense of injustice since. And yesterday, they put their indignation to good use.

"There was a real determin-ation today to make sure we got a result," said Peter Laverie, the Hawks acting head coach. "The boys were disappointed after the game down there when they thought they had it pinched from them.

"We can talk about being nearly men or we can go out and do the business. One of the players spoke about that at our training session, so we dug in.

"Today was about righting what the players felt was a wrong in the last league match. A lot of them stepped up to the mark and I'm very pleased with that."

In truth, they took their time to get to that mark, for Melrose looked sharper to any loose balls at the beginning of the game. While the Hawks were still stoking their boilers, Melrose had a head of steam, with scrum-half Murdo McAndrew scuttling around dangerously.

It was no great surprise when, after a period of heavy pressure, McAndrew sent centre Blair Hutchison through a yawning gap to collect the first try after 13 minutes. But having set the early pace, Melrose fell off badly as the Hawks cranked up the forward pressure. Two minutes before the break, the Hawks hammered away through a series of scrums, a passage that ended with an equalising penalty try.

As the second half got under way, it was clear that Laverie's side had no intention of easing off. The third quarter was a desperately punishing time for Melrose and it was a wonder they were still remotely in the contest at the end of it. By then, they had conceded a second try, collected by Gary Strain, but they had suffered a mental and physical battering along the way.

Things swung more decisively towards the Hawks in the 61st minute when full-back Andy Fleming squeezed over on the left corner for their third touchdown. That took the score to 19-7, and Melrose finally looked out of it.

To their credit, though, they mustered themselves for one last push, worked a good position and sent Damian Hoyland over for a try with eight minutes left.

Soon afterwards, though, Hoylan collected the first of those late yellow cards for a silly trip. Then, as the reduced Melrose appeared to have won a penalty deep in Hawks territory, hooker Richard Ferguson earned the second. Their body language in the last few seconds could be read as an admission of defeat.

Glasgow Hawks: A Fleming; R Houliston, J Steele, D Milne, P Ramsay; G Horne, P Moyer; G Strain, J Macfarlane, Z Fagerson, A Kirkland, S Cummings, S Leckey, F Gillies, T Spinks. Subs used: G Stewart, B Cullinane, J Agnew, M Bartoszek, N Herron. Melrose: F Thomson; D Hoyland, B Hutchison, J Helps, T Mua; T Galbraith, M McAndrew; N Beavon, R Ferguson, E McQuillin, J Head, L Carmichael, N Irvine-Hess, P Eccles, G Dodds. Referee: A McMenemy.