Duns Amateurs rack up hat-trick of cup wins with 6-3 victory v Greenlaw

​The Dingers beat Greenlaw 6-3 at Eyemouth’s Warner Park despite having goalkeeper Sean Robertson sent off on 81 minutes to claim the Border Cup for the fifth time following prior wins in 1989, 1993, 1999 and 2023.

Gregor Watson got a hat-trick for Duns, with Jonny Simpson scoring twice and Josh Hebdon also netting.

Greenlaw’s scorers were Kai Robertson, William Smillie and Archie Mowat.

That’s the Dingers’ third piece of silverware of this campaign, having already added the South of Scotland Amateur Cup and Colin Campbell Cup to their trophy cabinet.

They got the better of Chirnside United by 4-0 in Hawick at the end of March to pick up the latter for the first time and collected the former for the fourth time at the same ground a month later by beating Lanark’s Kirkfield United 3-1, their previous wins having been in 1992, 1997 and 1998.

Their next and last final of the season is against Border Amateur Football Association A division champions Langlee Amateurs at Greenlaw’s WS Happer Memorial Park this Friday, with kick-off at 6.30pm.

That’s a re-run of 2024’s final, won 4-3 by Duns at the end of last May to keep hold of a cup they’d secured with a 4-2 victory over Greenlaw the year before.

The last two years’ Waddell Cup wins are among six chalked up by Duns over the years as they also came out on top in 1997, 1998, 2004 and 2007’s finals.

Langlee have won that same silverware twice, in 2019 and 2022.

Duns and Langlee have played each other three times thus far this term, with the former losing twice and winning once.

Their defeats were both A division fixtures, by 3-2 at home in November and 2-1 away in April, and their win, by 7-3 away in April, was in the quarter-finals of this year’s Border Cup.

Last Friday’s cup final was followed by one A division match on Saturday, a 5-1 thumping for Berwick’s Highfields United away to Langholm Legion.

Chris Gardner racked up a hat-trick for the hosts, with Brian Mattinson and David Borthwick scoring too.

That game was the 20th and last of this league campaign for both sides, with Highfields finishing third on 32 points and Langholm ending up third from bottom in the relegation play-off spot on 24. That play-off is against Stow, fourth-place finishers in the association’s B division, and it takes place at Duns’ New Hawthorn Park this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 2pm.

A scheduled B division fixture for Tweeddale Rovers hosting Ancrum was called off due to the visitors being unable to field a team, with a home win being awarded.

The two last league matches of this term followed on Tuesday, one in each division, both home wins – by 3-1 for Duns against Chirnside in the top flight and 5-1 for Tweeddale versus Hawick Legion in the next table down.

Kieran Cromarty, Jordan Yardley and Kieran Burns scored for Duns, with Robert Reid replying for Chirnside.

Doug Knox and Rob McNaughton both scored twice for Tweeddale, with Jake Houten netting another and Jayden Romeo getting one back for their visitors.

Those results see Duns and Tweeddale both end up second in their tables, three points short of pole position.

The former sign off with 52 points from 20 fixtures, trailing Langlee, and the latter with 63 from 26, as runners-up to Gala Fairydean Rovers Amateurs.