Kelso hoping for win at Glasgow Hawks to keep up momentum ahead of Scottish Premiership play-off semi-final against Hawick

The Borderers, unbeaten in five games going back to mid-November, are already assured of fourth place in the table and a play-off semi-final away to league leaders and defending champions Hawick on Saturday, March 2, with kick-off at 3pm, and now they’re setting their sights on wrapping up their regular season by adding to their current tally of 52 points from 17 fixtures.

Victory at Balgray Stadium this Saturday would also see last season’s Scottish National League Division 1 champions do the double against the second-from-bottom Glaswegians, having beaten them 29-14 in the reverse fixture at Poynder Park in September, their first win of the current campaign.

“We’re looking forward to going up to Glasgow,” said Neil Hinnigan, the club’s director of rugby.

“We’ve had a good season so far. We set out finish in the top six as we felt sixth place would be a good achievement and well away from the relegation zone, but our season turned a little bit more adventurous come Christmastime.

“We really targeted winning our three games after Christmas because we thought if we could get three wins out of four, that would probably put us in fourth spot.

“We started off with a draw up at Edinburgh Accies, then beat Currie and beat Jed-Forest, so we’re now going to Hawks and don’t actually need to win.

“Hawks did us a big favour by beating Heriot’s this month, so that got us there with a game to spare. It’s amazing to be in the play-offs already.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind season but it’s been good so far.

“After we beat Jed at the start of the month, our players’ attention turned straight away to the play-offs. Normally, with the Borders rivalry involved, we’d have regarded winning that one as an achievement in its own right, but this time our focus was straight onto our play-off against Hawick and looking to drive our standards up for the next few weeks.

“We’ve got Hawks away this Saturday and that’ll bring its own challenges. It’ll maybe be a bit of a dress rehearsal for our semi-final.

“We really want to win that game just for momentum reasons.

“We’ve only lost one match since we played Jed at home in October and that was nine games ago. We’ve only lost that one in nine and that was against Hawick at home.

“We’re keeping our standards up but it’ll be a tough match. They’ve beaten Heriot’s and they’ll be wanting to finish on a high too, and they play Jed after us so they could finish with three wins if they can beat us, so I’m sure that’s what they’ll be targeting.”

Saturday’s game in Glasgow kicks off at 2pm.

Kelso have also got a Border League match away to Gala on Friday, February 23, with kick-off at 7.30pm, ahead of their play-off at Mansfield Park, with one further fixture in that regional competition, against Melrose on the road, yet to be scheduled.

They’re currently third in the seven-team table, on eight points from four games, level on points with second-placed Selkirk but eight adrift of table-toppers Hawick.