AN END-of-season fixture pile-up that dwarfs even that of Rangers has hit Selkirk hard.

And with their relegation fight hotting up, things are not going to be easy for the Souters over the next few weeks.

Tomorrow, they play their fourth game in seven days when they face Edinburgh City at Yarrow Park (2.30pm), but team bosses are concerned that the increased pressure on their players will take its toll on the team.

Assistant coach Ally McCulloch told The Wee Paper this week: "It is an absolute disgrace that in the last week and a half we will have ended up cramming in six matches.

"It's even more frustrating when you consider that other teams have been playing midweek for more than four weeks.

"Once our game is done this Saturday, we don't have a scheduled game for two weeks. What's that about?

"It's supposed to be professionally-run but the impact is simple. Our team and our efforts to stay up are not helped by such a stupid fixture demand as well as our worst injury list for four years.

"We will, however, continue to prepare as best we can and hope the lads hold up and keep us in the Premier Division."

On Tuesday night, Selkirk managed to hold Easthouses Lily to a 0-0 draw, before going on to play Thistle again last night (after The Wee Paper went to print).

Last week, the pre-match talks were that the Lothian Thistle match could decide who goes down in the relation battle.

Played at a fast and furious pace from start to finish, both teams had spells of dominance at various stages of the game, but it was the Yarrow Park outfit who started brighter with some very determined play.

On 34 minutes, the visitors got a deserved breakthrough when an advancing ball slipped from the Lothian keeper's hands.

Andy Brown reacted quickly, only to have his legs grabbed from behind by the desperate goalie to prevent an almost certain tap-in.

Incredibly, the ref decided a yellow card and a penalty was enough and left all observers a tad confused about the laws of scoring opportunities and the last man.

However, Alan Jackson slotted the resultant spot-kick.

Whether or not the incident ultimately had an effect on the final result is academic, but with no obvious second goalie to put in, Lothian were most fortunate and Selkirk a little hard done-by as the keeper stayed on to pull off one or two good saves – one of which was made at the feet of Ryan Pritchard, who on 40 minutes latched onto a through-ball from Brown and was left with the keeper to beat and Michael Romanes to his right waiting for a pass which would have left him with the simplest of finishes.

Pritchard was forced to make a choice by the advancing keeper, but failed to take the ball round him, much to the frustration of Romanes.
The second half saw the home side start well and the triallist Selkirk keeper Lenny Clark who had performed exceptionally well considering it was his first match, was beaten at the second attempt.

Selkirk pushed for a winner, but Lothian remained in control until the end and Selkirk were lucky to come away with a draw as they tired badly towards the end of the match.