Away ties for four out of five Borderers in round one of next football season’s South Region Challenge Cup

Gala Fairydean Rovers, the region’s only representation in the Scottish Lowland Football League, have been drawn away to West Lothian opposition two tables lower, East of Scotland Football League first division side Bathgate Thistle.

EoSFL division two outfit Linton Hotspur will be heading west to South Lanarkshire’s Carluke Rovers and EoSFL division three’s Vale of Leithen and Hawick Royal Albert are set to hit the road to BSC Glasgow and East Lothian’s Preston Athletic respectively.

Carluke and BSC Glasgow both play in the West of Scotland Football League’s fourth division and Preston Athletic are rivals of Bathgate’s in EoSFL division one.

Hotspur’s EoSFL division two rivals Coldstream are the only Borderers handed a home draw and they’ll host East Ayrshire WoSFL premier division side Hurlford United.

Those five cup ties are among 33 due to be played on Saturday, August 16.

Fairydean and Hotspur were the last Borderers standing last time round, both making it to round three.

The former lost 1-0 at home in Galashiels to North Ayrshire WoSFL first division team Irvine Meadow XI and the latter by 2-1 hosting Fife’s Hill of Beath Hawthorn, EoSFL premier division runners-up last time round, in West Linton, both those ties being played last October.

Fairydean got that far by beating the EoSFL premier division’s Camelon Juniors 4-2 at home the round before in September after being given a first-round bye.

Hotspur’s route to round three was a 6-0 win the same day away to Campbeltown Pupils in Argyll and Bute, also following a round-one bye.

Round two also saw knockouts for Vale, Peebles Rovers, Coldstream and Hawick Royal Albert, all after being given first-round byes too.

The Innerleithen outfit lost 3-0 at home to Preston Athletic, Peebles by 4-3 away to WoSFL division one’s Neilston in East Renfrewshire, Coldstream by 1-0 hosting West Lothian EoSFL first division team Blackburn United and Albert by 2-1 at the EoSFL premier division’s Newtongrange Star in Midlothian.

Round three was also as far as any Borderers made it the season before too, Albert going out at that stage by 4-1 away to the WoSFL top flight’s Kilwinning Rangers in North Ayrshire in October 2023 after beating Bathgate 2-1 at home the month before in round two.

2023’s round two also yielded knockouts for Peebles by 2-1 at home to Dunbar United and Coldstream by 4-3 hosting Stoneyburn, the latter after beating Vale 2-0 at home in that August’s first round.

Hotspur made a first-round exit as well after losing 5-3 at home to Livingston United, as did Fairydean, beaten 3-2 at Tynecastle.

Current holders of the cup are East Kilbride, now in William Hill League Two, after seeing off East Ayrshire WoSFL premier division side Auchinleck Talbot by 2-0 in April’s final in Cumbernauld.

That Scottish Football Association-run cup has never been won by a Borders team in its 18-year history and only one has made it to a final, Duns in 2012.

Fairydean’s Netherdale Stadium home ground has hosted two finals, however, including its first one – a 3-2 win for Annan Athletic against Edinburgh City in 2008 and a 4-2 victory for Stirling University against the Dingers four years later.