Minute of madness at end of derby results in Hawick Royal Albert and Peebles Rovers sharing spoils

Peebles Rovers on the attack against Hawick Royal Albert at Whitestone Park on Saturday (Photo: Pete Birrell)

Albert had looked to be on course for their first win of the campaign at Rovers’ Whitestone Park home ground as they were 2-1 up with only two minutes to go, thanks to goals from Harry Fowler on 52 minutes and Hon-To To seven minutes later cancelling out Robbie Renwick’s 15th-minute opener for the hosts.

However, an 88th-minute altercation saw two players sent off for Albert, Sean Solley and Robbie McPherson, and one for Rovers, Michael Robertson, and Ross Lamb then added to that drama by putting away an 89th-minute equaliser.

Albert manager Kenny Aitchison was disappointed to see his team held to a draw for the second week running, following their 5-5 result at home to Craigroyston the week before, saying: “It’s a funny one. I’ve never seen a team self-destruct like we did.

Peebles Rovers and Hawick Royal Albert vying for possession during their 2-2 draw on Saturday (Pic: Pete Birrell)

“There was a little bit of a tussle between the two teams that resulted in two red cards for us and one for them and they scored from the free-kick they were awarded.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed. It was poor game management on our part and I guess that’s a problem we’ve got with having younger players. It’s like a rite of passage to make these mistakes and learn from them and, believe me, they all learned from them after the game.

“We put a lot of hard work in and it was a good performance, so to get a win against a side that beat us 6-0 last season would have been a sign of progress.”

Rovers manager Ger Rossi added: “The game was a decent one in terms of going backwards and forwards, and the ending was certainly one for the neutral.

Hawick Royal Albert on the defensive against Peebles Rovers at the weekend (Pic: Pete Birrell)

“Quite a lot happened in the last 15 minutes.

“We found ourselves a goal behind with about ten minutes to go and it was quite a dramatic finish, with three sendings-off all at the same moment.

“I think every single one of the red cards was justified. There was a coming-together and players reacted. It was just a bit of a melee after a silly action.

“We’d probably look at the result as a decent recovery after a second half that was really poor by our standards.”