Peebles Rovers up to tenth in table after back-to-back wins

That rise into the table’s top ten was secured by a 2-1 win at Newburgh Juniors on Saturday, thank to two goals from Kyle Kivlichan, the first a header 13 minutes in and the second, from the penalty spot, on 57 minutes, with Michael Perrie replying for their Fife hosts ten minutes ahead of the final whistle.

That made it back-to-back wins for the Borderers following their 5-2 home victory against Edinburgh South a week earlier and they’re now on 18 points from 14 games.

Manager Ger Rossi is chuffed with how their season is shaping up, assessing Saturday’s match as one that might well have gone the other way a few games back.

“The reality of it is that at the beginning of the season, we would have probably dropped some points in this match, so to come away from a difficult venue with all three points shows again just how far we’ve come,” he told the club website.

“Two goals from Kyle and a better second-half performance allowed us to take plenty of positives back down the road.

“Sometimes I have to remind myself how well the boys have done since the beginning of the season.

“I think the group would agree we were maybe a little below our best, but winning in the manner we did shows the character we have in that changing room. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Rovers had to work hard to come away from East Shore Park with all three points, according to Rossi, and he singled out goalkeeper Cameron Hanratty for praise for keeping the visitors in the game early on.

“It was definitely a different type of win for us,” he said. “As a manager, you always want to be in a situation where you are going into the last ten minutes with a bit of breathing space, so a lot of credit must go to Newburgh as they pushed us all the way to the end.

“It was definitely a case of a game of two halves. In the first half, we probably have a lot to thank Cammy for a couple of incredible stops, and then in the second half, we went on to batter down the door without ever being able to get out of sight.”

Saturday’s game against East Lothian’s Ormiston kicks off at Whitestone Park at 2pm.