Updated: Border Amateur Football Association C division champions Eyemouth United Amateurs up against St Boswells in bid for treble

St Boswells, their opponents in 2023’s Sanderson Cup final at Selkirk’s Yarrow Park on Saturday, with kick-off at 2pm, will be out to defy the form-book and spoil their party, however.

Getting the better of the C division’s third-placed side for the second time in the space of a week would see Eyemouth pull off a winning treble after claiming this season’s league title and picking up the Collie Cup with a 6-0 win against Kelso Thistle in October.

Eyemouth’s last league game of the season was at home to St Boswells on Saturday gone and that 4-0 victory saw them keep up their 100% record for the campaign, having won all 21 games, scoring 108 goals in the process.

They’re only the fourth association team ever to go an entire league season without dropping a single point, the last being Tweedmouth Amateurs in 2015, also in the C division.

Their goal tally is also the fifth-highest in the history of the association, just four shy of Leithen Rovers’ record of 112, set in 2000.

The club’s manager, Lee Crawford, is delighted to be taking them up to the B division in only their second season back after folding in 2016 and finishing fourth last time round, saying: “It’s been good. We’ve been great this season.

“We’ve got a lot of young lads and some older boys and it’s all just kind of come together quite well.

“We did have a bit of a dip in performances just after new year but we were still managing to win games and that's quite important, to maybe not be at your best but still be able to get results. That’s when everybody started thinking we could maybe go on and win the title.

“I think the whole thing of going unbeaten and keeping up a 100% record didn’t really come into it until our last three or four games because in the C division anybody could beat anybody at any time.

“We knew we had to just keep going and then if we got the record, it would be important to us, but if we didn’t get it, then it wasn’t something we’d looked at going for at the start of the season anyway.

“We weren’t really looking at records like that – the most important thing was just to win the league by any means necessary and anything after that was really a bonus. They weren’t really important to us until after the season finished and we’d got them.

“That’s us done the double now and winning the Sanderson Cup would be a treble, which would be another good achievement.”

Eyemouth’s scorers against St Boswells at the weekend were Stefan Kennedy at the double, Connor Lough and Ilja Ovcinnikovs.

Looking back over that 21st win on the bounce and also ahead to taking on the same opposition for silverware in what will be their last match of this campaign, Crawford added: “It was always going to be a good marker ahead of playing them this weekend in the final.

“We maybe weren’t at our best at the weekend, if I’m honest with you. We still managed to win 4-0 but St Boswells are a good team and they’ll be up for it. They matched us well for long periods of Saturday’s game so I don’t think it’s going to be a one-sided final at all.”

Eyemouth’s win against St Boswells was one of only two league fixtures completed on Saturday, the other being a 7-0 win for Duns Amateurs at home to Tweeddale Rovers.

That result saw reigning champions Duns close the gap on A division table-toppers Langlee Amateurs to a single point ahead of the top two teams going head to head at Duns this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 2pm, for what could be a title decider.

Duns are now on 42 points from 16 games, Langlee being on 43 from 17.

Their scorers at the weekend, assisted by an own goal, were Conor Devaney with a hat-trick, Stewart Liddell, Sean Robertson and James Brydon.

Saturday’s only other league fixture, also in the A division, saw seventh-placed Hawick Waverley hosting fourth-placed Chirnside United but it was abandoned half an hour in due to one of visiting defender Duncan Morrison’s legs being broken. It's been rescheduled for this Saturday, with kick-off at 2pm.

Two Forsyth Cup semi-finals went ahead on Tuesday, Ancrum beating Selkirk Victoria 3-1 at home and St Boswells losing 4-2 at Tweeddale Rovers.

Two of Ancrum’s goals were scored by Lewis Turnbull and one by Ross MacKay, with Darren Munro netting for their visitors.

Scott Inglis got two of Tweeddale’s goals and Rhys Evans and Doug Knox the others, with Lee Macraeand Jack Bell on target for their hosts.

Ancrum and Tweeddale meet in the final at Earlston’s Runciman Park on Friday, May 19, at 6.30pm.

Another two semi-finals followed last night, May 10, in the Beveridge Cup, Duns beating Chirnside 4-2 at home and holders Langlee knocking out Greenlaw 3-0, also at home.

Ben Fairbairn put away a brace for Duns, with Sean Phillips and Kieran Burns getting their others and Rory Williams and Robert Reid scoring for their visitors, last year’s beaten finalists.

Jack Hay scored two of Langlee’s goals and Des Sutherland the other.

Those results set up a meeting in the final for the A division title rivals at Netherdale in Galashiels on Saturday, May 27, with kick-off at 2pm.

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