5-5 draw earns Hawick Royal Albert their first point of season and now they’re targeting more from Borders derby versus Peebles Rovers

The Royalists remain bottom of the East of Scotland Football League’s second division after drawing 5-5 against their Edinburgh opposition, but they’re now only four points adrift of the three teams immediately above them and have games in hand on all of them, including fellow Borderers Peebles Rovers, their next opponents.

Albert head up to Rovers’ Whitestone Park home ground on Saturday for a game kicking off at 2.30pm with one one point from five games, their 15th-placed hosts, managed by Ger Rossi, being on five from seven.

The Albert Park outfit’s manager, Kenny Aitchison, is targeting that match as a potential source of further points, saying: “Again this week I think our squad can be confident about trying to pick up three points. That’s what we’ll be aiming for

“I don’t think there’ll be much of a difference between Craigroyston and Peebles, but we didn’t show up for a lot of the game on Saturday afternoon, so it’s up to us to try to improve on that and to keep up our efficiency in attack.

“That was by far the best we’ve performed at the other end of the park. We had as many chances in that single game as we’d had in the previous three or four weeks.

“We’ll have a much stronger squad available this Saturday as well.

“I know Ger Rossi as a player and I know exactly how they play and where their strengths lie.”

Harry Fowler also got on the scoresheet for Albert against Craigroyston, with an own goal taking their tally up to five.

The capital side also benefited from an own goal, with Gary Mair, Dalziel Cron, Liam Smith and Ryan Dixon getting their others.

Looking back at that game, Aitchison, having seen his side go from being 2-0 down after quarter of an hour to 5-4 in front before being pegged back for a share of the spoils with one of his old clubs, said: “I think the conditions very much suited Craigroyston.

“Although I think we were the better team, they probably had better-quality chances, and despite us getting our first point, the guys were disappointed not to get all three, which is a good thing.”

Aitchison was full of praise for Albert’s goal-scorers, teenager Harry Fowler and former Vale of Leithen, Coldstream and Craigroyston winger Renton, deployed as a striker for the second half of Saturday’s match.

“Harry Fowler got his first goal for the club at the age of 16, so that was really good,” he said.

“It was Owen’s first game for the club and it was really pleasing that he’s got off to a good start by getting a hat-trick.

“That’s why we brought him in because, despite only being 20, he’s played at EoSFL level for four or five years and he’s got a really good goals-to-games ratio.

“He’s a winger naturally and that’s where we started him, on the left wing, but we felt with his sort of pace and ability to score, we could do with him up front.

“Getting three goals against a club that got rid of him must have been really sweet for him.”