Hawick Royal Albert and Vale of Leithen to play first competitive derby for five years

The two Borders sides have been drawn against each other in the East of Scotland Football League Cup’s first round and the Royalists will host their Innerleithen opponents at their Albert Park home ground, with kick-off at 2.30pm.

That’s one of 23 first-round ties being played this weekend, with a further three to follow in midweek and one more on Saturday, March 11.

It will be the first time Albert, now at the foot of the EoSFL’s second division, have played Vale competitively since their relegation from the Lowland League at the end of the 2017/18 season.

Vale followed them out of the fifth-tier league last year, leaving Gala Fairydean Rovers as the region’s only representatives, and are currently bottom of the EoSFL’s premier division.

Albert still get to play at least two Borders derbies a year as they’re in the same division as Peebles Rovers but derby-days are, for now, a thing of the past for Vale, though Coldstream might be waiting for them in the EoSFL’s first division next time round if they’re unable to beat the drop and the Streamers, just above their relegation zone at the moment, are.

Both Albert and Vale say they’re looking forward to playing each other competitively again.

Albert manager Kenny Aitchison said: “I know their team well. We’re looking forward to it.

“It’s another derby, so it’ll be a great one.

“Both teams are struggling at the moment so we’ll both be looking at it as a fresh competition to try to get a win in.”

Vale general manager Bobby Craigie said: “We’ve not played Hawick in a proper match since we were both in the Lowland League a good few years back, so we’re looking forward to playing in a derby again.

“We’ve played them and Peebles in friendlies since, though.”

Albert and Vale’s last meeting was a 2-1 friendly win for the latter at their Victoria Park home ground in June 2021 and Vale also won their last two league matches, by 4-1 away in March 2018 and 2-0 at home in September 2017.

Both Albert and Vale lost on Saturday gone, the former by 3-0 at second-placed St Andrews United and the latter by 8-0 at home to Jeanfield Swifts, also second in their table.

On target for St Andrews at the Clayton Caravan Park Recreation Ground in Fife were Lewis Sawers at the double and Jordan Mackenzie.

Kiffy Scott got a hat-trick for Perth’s Swifts in Innerleithen, with Chris McLeish adding a double and Chris Dodds, Keiran Stewart and Paul Simpson also netting.

Those results leave Albert on five points from 20 games – 12 points from safety as things stand but potentially ten if the number of teams to be relegated to the third division is cut from four to three.

Vale are without any points from 22 games, having had three points deducted for fielding an ineligible player in November, leaving them 23 points from safety with eight games left to go.