Hawick Royal Albert are last Borderers standing in South Region Challenge Cup after 8-0 home win

Ben Tracey racked up a hat-trick for manager Kenny Aitchison’s Albert against their South of Scotland Football League basement side visitors in the space of five minutes – on 79 minutes, 80 and 84 – with Ayoola Olusoji netting at the double on six and seven and Ben Uwandu, Lewis Dyke and Josh Philip on target too, on 28, 66 and 85 respectively.

That glut of goals against the Kirkcudbright club takes the Royalists through to round three of the cup, to be drawn this Thursday and played on Saturday, October 10.

Albert’s East of Scotland Football League second division south-east conference rivals Vale of Leithen were also in challenge cup action on Saturday, going out 3-0 at home to Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University in Innerleithen.

Vale’s exit followed those of fellow south-east conference side Linton Hotspur, the Scottish Lowland Football League East’s Gala Fairydean Rovers and the capital city students’ EoSFL division one rivals Coldstream, beaten respectively 1-0 by South Lanarkshire’s Rutherglen Glencairn and 4-1 by East Lothian’s Tranent, both at home, and 8-0 away to Glasgow’s Knightswood in round one in mid-August.

Manager Ger Rossi’s Vale and opposite number David Brown’s Coldstream are back on league duty this coming Saturday, hosting Northumberland’s Tweedmouth Rangers and West Lothian’s Bathgate Thistle, both 2.30pm kick-offs.

Ruairidh Fleming and Paul Currie’s Hotspur have got further knockout action on the way at the same time, away to the EoSFL premier division’s Whitburn in West Lothian in round two of the Alex Jack Cup.

Albert are off this weekend but get back on the ball next Tuesday away to Tynecastle in Edinburgh on league business and that’s a 7.30pm start.

Coldstream are currently 12th in their table, on six points from as many fixtures, and Hotspur are second in the next one down, on 12 from seven, with Albert fifth, on ten from five, and Vale ninth, on six from four.

Vale host Tweedmouth hoping to extend a four-match unbeaten run against them dating back to last November, most recently beating them 2-0 on the road in August in this season’s reverse fixture.

The Streamers, on the other hand, are still waiting for their first win against Bathgate, having lost both their prior meetings in the EoSFL’s old second division the season before last, by 2-1 at home in February 2025 and 3-0 away the preceding November.

Hotspur and Whitburn’s paths have only crossed once before, for a 9-0 battering on the road for the West Linton outfit in the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup’s second round in July 2024.

Albert have only got the better of Tynecastle once in five previous games, that being a 2-1 away win in round one of the East of Scotland Football League Cup in February 2025, with their other meetings including a 12-0 thumping on the road in October 2019 in the old EoSFL first division conference B.