Wins for Vale of Leithen and Hawick Royal Albert but losses for Coldstream and Linton Hotspur as pre-season friendlies conclude
Two of the Borders’ four East of Scotland Football League clubs wrapped up their pre-season friendly programmes with wins on Saturday but the other two lost out.
Vale of Leithen were the biggest winners, notching up an 8-1 victory away to Mid Annandale in Dumfries and Galloway.
Their EoSFL second division south-east conference rivals Hawick Royal Albert and Linton Hotspur enjoyed mixed fortunes against Edinburgh opposition, the former winning 1-0 away to Corstorphine Dynamo and the latter losing 2-0 at home to Leith Athletic.
EoSFL division one’s Coldstream also concluded their warm-ups on a losing note, going down 4-0 hosting Midlothian’s Newtongrange Star.
Vale’s scorers included Kyle Kivlichan with a hat-trick on six minutes, 17 and, from the penalty spot, 35.
Also on target for manager Ger Rossi’s Innerleithen outfit at Lockerbie’s New King Edward Park were Fraser Stewart on 19 minutes and 22, Louie Grahame on 39, Nazir Sayet Sayed on 45 and Jake Houten on 87, with Cammy Dean getting one back for their South of Scotland Football League hosts on 43.
Connor Elliot scored the only goal of the game for manager Kenny Aitchison’s Albert on the road at the capital’s Saughton Park on 21 minutes.
EoSFL division one Leith’s scorers in West Linton were Lewis Hawkins on 33 minutes and Ben Bookbinder on 45.
Netting for the EoSFL top flight’s Newtongrange at Home Park were Sean Guiney, Aidan Barrowman, Mitchell Bentley and Ryan Quinn.
The new EoSFL league season starts this coming Saturday and manager David Brown’s Streamers and co-gaffers Ruairdh Fleming and Paul Currie’s Hotspur are on the road, to Crossgates Primrose in Fife and Edinburgh United respectively, with only the Royalists kicking off at home, versus Edinburgh College, all 2.30pm starts.
Coldstream are back in action at home next Tuesday, to Hutchison Vale, as are Hotspur, to another capital city side, Tynecastle, both 7.30pm kick-offs.
Vale start their season away to Edinburgh United the night after and that’s also a 7.30pm kick-off.
Albert and Edinburgh College’s upcoming meeting will be their first but the EoSFL’s three other sets of Borderers will all be starting off against familiar faces.
Hotspur and Edinburgh United were rivals in the old third division for the 2024-25 season, last meeting in April last year, twice, with the Borderers losing 2-0 at home but coming out on top by 1-0 in the capital a week and a half later.
Their second set of opponents, Tynecastle, are an unknown quantity, however.
Vale and Edinburgh United then went on to face each other in that same division the season after, with the former winning two of their four games in all competitions, the most recent of them by 3-0 at home in the league in April this year.
Coldstream have only played Crossgates once before, knocking them out of round two of the South Region Challenge Cup 2-0 on home turf in November 2020.
Hutchie are more familiar opponents, though, having been former league rivals in various set-ups from 2014 to 2019, with their latest meeting, a first-round East of Scotland Football League Cup tie in March 2024, seeing the Borderers beaten 1-0 on the road in the capital.