​Play-offs within reach as win sees Kelso go fourth in rugby’s Scottish Premiership

​That victory against a side second in the table at kick-off lifts the Borderers up into the top four for the first time this season and they’re hoping to stay there to earn a shot at the title just a year on from their promotion to the top flight from Scottish National League Division 1.

Kelso are now on 47 points from 16 fixtures but Edinburgh Academical, Heriot’s Blues and Musselburgh all remain in contention for the play-off place they now occupy, sitting respectively fifth on 46 from 17, sixth on 45 from 16 and seventh on 45 from 17.

Discipline – or, rather, lack of it on Currie’s part – proved to be the key to Kelso’s comeback at their Poynder Park home ground as their visitors from Edinburgh left themselves two men short for quarter of the first half and went on to pick up a third yellow card after the interval.

The visiting players sin-binned by referee Sam O’Neil were full-back Charlie Brett on 20 minutes, scrum-half Gregor Christie on 22 and flanker Rhys Davies on 54.

Head coach Kevin Utterson’s hosts took full advantage of those absences first to get back into the game and then take the lead, with No 8 Bruce McNeil, captain Frankie Robson, prop Terry Logan and hooker Euan Knox scoring their tries and Dwain Patterson adding a penalty and a conversion.

Touching down for Currie were wingers James McCaig and Ryan Daley and No 8 Sam Cardosi, with captain Jamie Forbes also kicking a penalty and conversion.

Kelso’s two remaining fixtures of the regular season are away to already-relegated basement side Jed-Forest this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm, and on the road at second-from-bottom Glasgow Hawks on Saturday, February 17, at 2pm.

Both reverse fixtures went their way – by 29-14 versus Hawks in September and 30-21 against Borders rivals Jed in October – so they’ll be hoping to notch up winning doubles at the double to extend their premiership season by another game or even two.

Second-row Euan Thompson was chuffed to bits to see his side claim another big-name scalp – to join those of second-placed Marr and fellow play-off contenders Musselburgh and Edinburgh Academical – telling Borders Rugby TV afterwards: “To go three tries down within 16 minutes wasn’t great, but we never panicked.

“We just needed more of the ball, which we came out and got, especially in the last 20 minutes.

“It was about how much we all wanted it. It was a case of lose and go home, with no play-offs, if we’d lost. We needed to win today and to win our next two games to have a chance and we all knew that.

“We’ve got to go away to Jed and away to Hawks and they’re not going to be easy games – they’re going to be hard – but I think we can do it.

“We just have to keep working and we can get there.

“The first is a Border derby and Jed are not going to want to go down without a win. They’re going to bring everything they’ve got and next Saturday we need to be ready for that.”