East of Scotland Football League:
Groundhop 2019
The membership of the East of Scotland Football League was swelled prior to the commencement of the current season, with twenty six clubs entering the competition, of which all but one arrived via a mass exodus of twenty five clubs, who applied to join from the junior league ranks.
Subsequently, the East of Scotland Junior's numbers have dropped significantly, from sixty clubs to just thirty six, following a restructuring that was borne out of the recent upheaval.
Note, when we talk about 'junior' football in Scotland, it isn't a reference to youth team football.
But it's actually the done thing around these parts, to express seniority in the pecking order of all things football, status wise, in such a way.
I can't claim to have anything like the kind of erudite knowledge of Scottish football, that I maybe once thought I had (but probably didn't), when I spent a large proportion of my life north of the border for a couple of monumentally crazy years, but I will attempt to set the scene as regards the lay of the land pertaining to the region's pyramid structure.
But please, don't chastise me too harshly if any of this overview, which is, for the most part, based on my own assumptions, having gleaned most of my information second hand, is incorrect.
I do try my hardest to research these things as thoroughly as possible, but I have my limitations and recognise that they are manifold.
Effectively, the newly revamped East of Scotland League, will be a step 6 competition next season, offering a pathway of progression, via promotion, into the Lowland League and, ultimately, the Scottish Professional Football League structure.
And as of this season, the competition has been organised into a trio of Conference divisions (A, B and C), of which the three winners will play off against each other, to decide the overall champions at the end of the season.
The dates for those 'round robin' play off fixtures are: Saturday 27 April : Winner A v Winner C. Tuesday 30 April or Wednesday 1 May: Winner B v Winner A. Saturday 3 May: Winner C v Winner B.
Click on the relevant link below, for the current state of play in all three divisions.
Additionally, the clubs that achieve a top six finish (i.e. the five teams that finish beneath each of the Confernce winners) in the three Conference divisions, will make up an East of Scotland League Premier Division next season.
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| Photo taken by Craig Dabbs (a top bloke). I'm the one wearing a Public Image Ltd t-shirt and no coat... reckless! |
For the duration of my Caledonian adventure, I teamed up with the travellers on board the Groundhop UK reprobates coach, with whom I was based for two nights at the Holiday Inn in East Kilbride.
The painstaking work that goes into organising these events, undertaken by Chris, Laurence and their back up team, is greatly appreciated by yours truly and everyone else who attended... the three days ran like clockwork, all six host clubs had pulled out all of the stops to provide brilliant hospitality... and even the weather behaved itself, with any rain being limited to just after the first game, but clearing up a hour or so before the second.
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| Just waiting for Duane Dibley to arrive and then we can all get going. |
I've attended these sorts of events previously, where a straw poll to decide which club was the friendliest and most welcoming has been conducted, after all of the games had finished. But this honour would have to be split six ways this time around, because each and every port of call we visited, was off the scale in that respect.
I hope that all of the clubs enjoyed the experience as much as us 'thrill-seeking' anorak clad visitors did... and that the fiscal rewards duly matched all of the effort that they had collectively put in.
Kudos is due too, to Doug, our Kiwi coach driver, who negotiated a few tight backstreets that lesser men would've needed vertical take off to get into and out of again in even an average sized family saloon car, let alone a 61 seater charabanc.
"Hail to the bus-driver!"
Friday 29th March 2019
East of Scotland League - Conference B - 8PM
at Westfield Park
Dunipace FC (0) 0
Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic (1) 4
Aaron Murrell 6
Lee Currie 60, 83 pen
Keith Lough 88
Attendance: 380
Our first destination on our foreign holiday weekend, was Denny, the home of Dunipace FC, which stands roughly seven miles to the west of Falkirk.
Westfield Park, with it's 4G pitch, is a work in progress... and subsequently, all of it's previous spectator facilities and olde world buildings have been levelled and removed.
But there is a bloody great big grass bank along one side of the ground, with a handy plateau running for the whole length of the pitch... and a slightly less challenging slope behind one of the goals. As well as a viewing tower, which seemed to have been commandeered by a group of Bonnyrigg supporters for the duration of the night, who were part of an away following of around 100, that had travelled to see if their team could get at least the required point out of tonight's game, that would see them claim top spot in the Conference B group table.
Dunipace had their moments, but it soon became fairly evident that the hosts had adopted a defensive set up, to frustrate their free scoring and in-form guests, while perhaps (occasionally) hitting them with the odd counter attack or two.
After taking an early lead, the Rose had to be patient against a back five and deep sitting midfield, but they eventually took the three points via a comfortable margin, after doubling their advantage on the hour mark, while adding two late strikes' just to be on the safe side, including a 'Panenka' style penalty kick by Lee Currie, which accounted for his second and Bonnyrigg's third goal.
Although the penalty was crafty, well executed and highly entertaining, I actually thought that Currie's crashing half-volley from just inside the Pace area was a better finish, arriving as it did, some fifty four minutes after Aaron Murrell had opened the scoring, with a shot on the turn, that threatened to mark the start of a deluge, as the visitors started the night piling the pressure on, against the home side's stubborn resistance.
Ryan Shanks went closest to finding the net for Dunipace, but his thumping header narrowly cleared the bar... and although we didn't know it yet, that meant that our hosts for this opening night, would be the only team, out of the twelve we'd be watching over the weekend, who were destined not to score at least one goal.
FT: Dunipace 0 v Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic 4
While leaving the ground somebody was moaning (as he usually does, about something or another), that the Bonnyrigg players Christian names hadn't been written on the team list noticeboard, while adding that there was 'nothing' to read in the programme, i.e. the same publication that I got the visiting players Christian names out of. Just saying.
Tonight's visitors will not require approval from the SFA to clarify their promotion, if they should win in the three team play-off lottery, because that stipulation has apparently been waived, for one year only.
Which is great and hot off the press news, for all concerned.
'Our Doug'. didn't hang around getting us to the hotel in a little over half a hour... and after checking in and working out how to use the swipe card to open the door (no two ever seem to be the same wherever I may wander)... I was snoring my rocks off before 11.15PM in my palatial sized room, while the part animals in our midst headed straight for the bar or went out to hit all of the fleshpots that downtown East Kilbride had to offer until the wee small hours.
"Breakfast will be served at 7.30AM and transport to Camelon will be leaving at 9.15AM prompt, (or thereabouts), in the the morning".
Bring it on!
It was raining when we boarded our coach on Saturday morning, for the thirty mile, north easterly run, up to Camelon.
But five minutes into the journey, the skies cleared and even a few deceptive rays of sunlight broke through the clouds... that is to say, it may well have been a bright day, but still bloody cold.
A labyrinth of narrow streets and double parking made for a few 'breathe in' moments as we approached the ground. I think that all of the wing mirrors were unharmed in the making of this trip, but hats off to the Kiwi bloke for not hitting any obstacles... even though it must have been sorely tempting, if only to instil some common sense into a few road users, as regards the rudimentary etiquette of considerate parking.
Camelon Juniors: 'Carmuirs Park' enclosure, along with 'Prestonfield', the home of Linlithgow Rose, that we would be visiting later, are what those amongst our number who love traditional, old, lived-in and knocked about a bit, football arenas (AKA: all of us) would consider to be 'ground porn'... or even the holy grail, in our quest to visit as many rough and ready, but lovingly restored, olde grounds as possible; that haven't been demolished yet, or replaced by a couple of functional but very boring identikit 'atcost' stands... an all too common and vulgar way of destroying tradition, in the so-called name of progress.
Saturday 30th March 2019
East of Scotland League - Conference C - 11AM
at Carmuirs Park
Camelon Juniors (4) 5
Conor McKenzie 8, 43, 46
Alan Sneddon 10, 25
Edinburgh United (1) 1
Gabi Auriamma 40 pen
Attendance: 352
The host side have opted to keep the 'Juniors' part of their name intact, despite moving to their current level of competition, unlike Friday night's hosts Dunipace, who dropped the 'post-fix' from their moniker.
The game itself was a bit of a mismatch... but, this kind of thing is bound to occur as all of the teams competing in the EoSFL this term, find their proper level in the pecking order of things, while the Conference system is serving it's initial purpose.
Truth be told, had it not been for Shea Dowie in the United goal, the final score could've had a more top heavy final outcome in favour of Camelon than it actually did.
The game was eight minutes old, when the Mariners (although Camelon is several miles away from the River Forth, it used to be a port, hence the nickname), cashed in their chips following a lively start, when Conor McKenzie squeezed a shot just inside the right hand post while under pressure... and within ninety seconds of the opening goal, the hosts had doubled their lead, when a defensive cock-up left Dowie stranded, as Alan Sneddon rolled the ball into an empty net.
Sneddon scored again, halfway through the first half, with a thumping free header from a right wing cross... and he almost claimed a hat-trick just moments later, but Dowie pushed his diving header against the left hand upright.
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| One of the club's sponsors has an executive box, overlooking the ground from his own back garden |
Gabrielle Auriamma pulled a goal back from the penalty spot (below) for the Edinburgh side, five minutes before the break, bur McKenzie almost immediately restored Camelon's three goal cushion, when he broke into the left hand side of Dowie's penalty area and spanked the ball just inside the left hand post.
In the opening minute of the second half, McKenzie then claimed his hat-trick.
Fair play to the young visitors side. for not just rolling over now that the outcome of the game was all but a foregone conclusion.
Camelon went close twice, with Ryan Lochie's free kick whistling inches over the bar and Sneddon's goal-bound strike being kept out courtesy of a last ditch goal-line clearance, while Dowie was still being kept busy, but that was that as regards the goals in this lively encounter.
FT: Camelon Juniors 5 v Edinburgh United 1
More photos of the iconic time capsule of a ground at Camelon might follow, when I get the time to upload them all onto a Flickr group in the (hopefully) not too distant future. But don't hold your breath... I'm a bugger for not getting around to things these days.
Off we went on our merry way once again, past the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies (my I-Spy Book of Central Belt Landmarks is now filled to the brim with ticks), past Linlithgow (see you later) and up over the Forth Bridge, to the very hilly and picturesque Fife town of Inverkeithing, where a previous invasion of English personnel, some three hundred and sixty eight years ago, had helped that horrible war-mongering bastard of a tyrant: Oliver Cromwell, to take control of the Firth of Forth.
Incidentally, you can see all three of the adjacent Forth bridges from the Swifts ground, peering from behind yonder hills.
Subsequently, Scotland reclaimed what is rightfully theirs... while future generations of Anglophobes, promised to never attack their neighbours again, on the proviso that the locals painted the nearby rail bridge in Heart of Midlothian's maroon colours, and drew up a declaration that every year a coach of nit-picking English ground-hoppers would visit the country and support the local football economy by buying loads of trinkets and paraphernalia as souvenirs of their visit and stuffing their faces with unfamiliar sounding foodstuff.
Obviously, our raiding party came in peace today and were met with the same kind of cordiality... but looking at the sorry state of most of us, myself included, we'd have probably got bashed about quite badly in any kind of a conflict anyway. Though the small but significant number of thoroughly smashing Welsh people in our midst, might still have swung things in our favour.
Subsequently, Scotland reclaimed what is rightfully theirs... while future generations of Anglophobes, promised to never attack their neighbours again, on the proviso that the locals painted the nearby rail bridge in Heart of Midlothian's maroon colours, and drew up a declaration that every year a coach of nit-picking English ground-hoppers would visit the country and support the local football economy by buying loads of trinkets and paraphernalia as souvenirs of their visit and stuffing their faces with unfamiliar sounding foodstuff.
Obviously, our raiding party came in peace today and were met with the same kind of cordiality... but looking at the sorry state of most of us, myself included, we'd have probably got bashed about quite badly in any kind of a conflict anyway. Though the small but significant number of thoroughly smashing Welsh people in our midst, might still have swung things in our favour.
Saturday 30th March 2019
East of Scotland League - Conference C - 2.15PM
at Ballast Park
Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts (0) 2
Ryan Cowie 71,
Brodie Hamilton 74
Heriot-Watt University (2) 4
Calvin Muttitt 27, 31
Tyler Huxford 57
Arron Singh 82 pen
Attendance: 301
Ballast Park is by far the most basic of all the grounds that we visited over the course of our elongated weekend, but the club made up tenfold for the lack of spectator comforts, in so many other ways, and were evidently putting a hell of a lot of (greatly appreciated) effort, into making sure that the three hundred plus visitors that were present today, were catered for excellently... and consequently any initial reservations about the ground being: "Just a bloody field with railings round it", were soon dispelled.
I'd be reluctant to use the modern-day description 'Fan-zone' for the area that 'Swifts' had put created for the purposes of eating, drinking (including a bar area), frolicking, cavorting and merriment, because there was a far more chilled vibe about the place, that similarly named areas that are created outside big stadiums, but just... wow!
They had put a lot of thought and time into making today's events pass as smoothly and pleasantly as was humanly possible, for all concerned... and they deserve a huge amount of credit for having done so too.
The game itself could best be described as having been 'eventful'... but it was a highly entertaining spectacle nevertheless.
Todd Teviotdale put the ball in the Swifts net inside the opening two minutes of the game, but the referee, Barry Reid, who I later heard being accused of bias towards the visitors, ruled the goal out.
The opening goal came in the twenty eighth minute, when Ross Wortley, the hosts keeper, faffed and dawdled about with the ball on the edge of his area, instead of launching it away from danger... and Calvin Muttitt nipped in, stole it away from him and ran off to roll it, in the back of the unguarded goal.
A few minutes later Muttitt struck again... this time with a superbly taken angled overhead kick from fifteen yards out... You don't stop them!
Tyler Huxford (I think) crashed the ball against the left hand post, right at the start of the second half and Neil Laurenson thumped it against the crossbar, when the rebound fell kindly for him, as Heriot-Watt looked to consolidate their lead.
The visitors finally got their third, just before the hour, when Huxford stumbled as he ran into the Swifts area, but regained his balance, before shooting straight at Wortley, who could do nothing about it, as the ball hit him and spun beyond his reach and over the goal line.
The game began to get a bit feisty... and Inverkeithing's Euan Miller was dismissed for 'earning' himself two bookings, just moments apart. The first, for a heavy lunge on Muttitt, out on the touchline near the technical areas (which was possibly worth a red card on it's own), before getting a second one for shoving his head into the face of an opponent, who was remonstrating with him about the original unnecessarily reckless challenge.
Ironically, as often happens when a team goes down to ten men, the hosts then stepped up the ante and clawed their way back into the game, with two almost identical strikes, from just inside the right hand side of the visitors penalty area, scored three minutes apart, by Ryan Cowie and Brodie Hamilton.
But the odds on the Swifts drawing level and salvaging something from this game lengthened considerably, when John Francis, who'd actually put in a decent shift on the left hand side of defence, was also sent off, for 'effing and Geoffing at the referee... and an already tall order grew by several more feet, as the home side were reduced to nine men.
Arron Singh, who I'd initially mistaken for a female physio on the subs bench before he started warming up (look, I've been away from home for a few days now... and I'm possibly beginning to hallucinate, sans getting my porridge quota back home), was introduced to the fray, to add a bit of pace to the University side's attack, while freshening things up a bit.
The live-wire substitute darted into the left hand edge of the Swifts area, and was poleaxed by Wortley.
He was inside the area, we were standing just a few yards away... and despite the protestations of the hosts keeper, it was most definitely a foul.
When Wortley complained to the referee that he had got the ball, it was tempting to shout out: "Which one!? The left one or his right one!?" But I'm becoming ever more diplomatic, in my old age, so I bit my lip and started recording the impending penalty action on my phone... and in the event, I captured the aggrieved goalkeeper pulling off a great save from Singh's initial spot-kick.
But, Mr Reid ordered that the kick should be retaken... and Singh made no mistake the second time around.
Wortley was justifiably peed off, given that he had saved the first penalty fairly and squarely, but he probably hadn't spotted what the match officials had, inasmuch as, if you peruse the video of the the first penalty, a Swifts player clearly encroaches into the area and was almost in danger of reaching the dead ball before Singh had even struck it.
Sadly, Ryan Cowie probably hadn't seen one of his teammates indiscretion either and he launched a verbal tirade at the referee that saw him heading for an early shower too. There are a couple of words beginning with the letter C that it is inadvisable to call match officials, one of them is cheat, the other has no place on a family blog such as this.
Obviously, a comeback was beyond a team consisting of only eight players... and Heriot-Watt saw the remaining eight minutes out as comfortably as you might've expected.
FT: Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts 2 v Heriot-Watt University 4
A few undisciplined moments out on the field of play, didn't seem the have sullied the first impression of the club on the whole, that many people spoke positively about en route to our next destination. And the rather splendid Swifts bobble hat that I acquired, was by far the most desirable item of merchandise that I saw on sale anywhere all weekend too.
And furthermore... Love is in the air, and don't this pair make a lovely couple!?
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| Get a room! |
Next up: Blackburn v Preston. No, not an EFL Championship, Lancashire derby fixture, but a Conference C game, that the host side really need to win, to keep up with the sides in the top half of the table (including today's visitors), so that they can push on with their efforts to qualify for a place in the EoSFL Premier Division next season.
Blackburn is situated in West Lothian. near Bathgate and Livingston, and roughly equidistant from both Edinburgh and Glasgow... United play their home games at New Murrayfield Park, which is next to their original ground, that is still in use for development squad games, and the Community Centre, that I was reliably(ish) told, holds prestigious Taekwondo competition events, but appears to be unused at this current time, while having had every single pane of glass broken by vandals in recent times.
Unless, of course, you get bonus points for chucking your opponent through a nearby window in Taekwondo.
The football ground, by contrast, is a very neat and tidy facility, with a decent sized covered terrace and hard standing all the way around a 4G pitch.
I guess followers of Scottish football, must be fitter and sturdier than their English counterparts, given that we had now visited four grounds, and bar a row of chairs stuck in the corner of a stand at Camelon, none of them had any seating for spectators to use.
Saturday 30th March 2019
East of Scotland League - Conference C - 5.15PM
at the Purdie Community Stadium
New Murrayfield Park
Blackburn United (2) 4
Darren Downie 1 pen, 4, 65
Michael Browne 81
Preston Athletic (0) 1
Liam McFarlane 77
Attendance: 328
Somewhere within that t'internet netherworld called 'the Cloud' there are several brief video clips from this game that I recorded on my phone for posterity... but I'm buggered if I can find them anywhere.
Put it down to bungling blogger versus technology moment... that I lost by an embarrassingly heavy margin.
The queues for food were both quite long, so I opted to come back later for my fodder so that I didn't miss the start of the game, which proved to be the right decision on my part, or I wouldn't have seen 'Burnie' storming ahead into a two goal lead inside the opening four minutes. As Darren Downie opened the scoring from the penalty spot after just sixty seconds, before adding a second with a sweetly struck half volley fromjust outside the right hand edge of the visitors area, that bounced in front of and over: Jack Findlay, the Preston keeper.
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| First minute... first Blackburn goal. |
Craig Young was fouled twenty yards or so, away from the Preston goal... and Richard Hutton shook the crossbar fronm the resulting free kick.
Having been rattled by Downie's two goal salvo at the outset of the game, Athletic, playing in their away kit of all red, began to find their feet on the New Murrayfield Park 4G and were unlucky not to have halved their arrears shortly before half time, when Marty Lawrie headed the ball off of the line for United, as Dylan Weldon went close to pulling a goal back for the visitors.
But Downie was taking the game to the visitors like a man possessed... and following several near misses, he netted his third goal of the afternoon in the sixty fifth minute, sweeping the ball past Findlay from inside the six yard box, after a few chaotic moments had ensued in the visitors goalmouth.
Liam McFarlane got a goal back for Preston in the seventy seventh minute, pouncing to steer the ball into the back of the net after Darren Mitchell had fumbled, but it was highly unlikely that the visitors would be getting anything out of the game now.
Blackburn added a fourth when Michael Browne leapt like a salmon and planted a firm header past Findlay from Richard Hutton's hanging cross, with just nine minutes remaining.
FT: Blackburn United 4 v Preston Athletic 1
Darkness began to fall, as Blackburn rounded off their impressive win, that kept them in the hunt for a top six finish... an aim that I sincerely hope they'll achieve, and we bid yet another friendly host club farewell and scrunched across the shards of broken glass in the car park and boarded our transport, to head towards the final leg of Saturday's football bonanza, in Linlithgow, via a six mile long, narrow and winding road, that we thankfully never met any oncoming traffic approaching in the opposite direction on.
Saturday 30th March 2019
East of Scotland League - Conference C - 8PM
at Prestonfield
Linlithgow Rose (2) 3
Roddy MacLennan 15, 38
Tommy Coyne 63
Jeanfield Swifts (1) 2
Rhys Davies 6
Connor MacLaren 46
East of Scotland League, Groundhop UK tour 2019, game five: in which Conference C's second placed team. Linlithgow Rose entertained Jeanfield Swifts, who started the night in third, in front of a bumper crowd, under the lights at Prestonfield, that included a delegation from the current group leaders Broxburn Athletic, who had won their game at Craigroyston 1-3 earlier today, which means, that by virtue of tonight's hard fought victory over Jeanfield Swifts, Linlithgow remain five points behind 'the Brox' (or 'the Burn' if you prefer), with a game in hand.
Rhys Davies fired the visitors ahead in the sixth minute, nudging the ball inside the left hand post from six yards out, after Scott Smith had played a measured sideways pass across the Rose penalty area.
Davies almost added a second as as a very competitive, keenly contested and entertaining game began to unfold, but his shot deflected wide of the upright... and a few minutes later, Roddy MacLennan battled his way forward into the Swifts area, before picking his spot and planting the ball past Mark Mitchell.
With thirty eight minutes on the clock, MacLennan struck again, from Tommy Coyne's pass and the host had a one goal cushion to take in with them at the interval.
However, Jeanfield weren't just here to make up the numbers and Connor McLaren equalised right at the start of the second half, holding off the close attention of his defensive marker to get his shot away. barely a minute after the restart.
The quality of the game and homeliness of the 'lived in' surroundings made for a great spectacle that either side might possibly have won.
But, there was to only be one more goal scored tonight and that was claimed by 'the Lithgy min' (a grand old nickname if ever there was one)... scored from the penalty spot by Coyne, after Mitchell had felled MacLennan in his area.
Right at the death, the Broxburn players were up and ready to join in with the celebrations, as Lewis Mackie let fly with a long range thunderbolt of a shot... but, the ball cannoned back off the woodwork, and the hosts held out for a vital win.
FT: Linlithgow Rose 3 v Jeanfield Swifts 2
We still had one more game to do, calling in at Peebles on Sunday morning, on our way home, but for now, it was back to the Holiday Inn for another good night's sleep, after calling in at the all-night Morrison's store in East Kilbride, for a few things.
Woo hoo! What a party animal I've turned into as I shuffle gingerly towards my twilight years, eh!?
Breakfast polished off, showered, bag packed, group photos taken... and we're off!
Following a slight delay while certain people paid for extras, that weren't included in the price... No Burnley! The midget-porn wasn't on a free-view channel.
The weekend had passed by in no time, proving the old adage, that time flies when you're having fun. So here we go again, one last time... Peebles or bust, in the Rugby Union heartland of the Borders.
Whitestone Park has a decent sized stand and ample seating for anybody requiring such a luxury. I figured that if I'm going to be sat down for most of the journey home anyway, so it was a good opportunity to stretch my legs and roam around taking in this sixth game of the weekend from a selection of vantage points.
A local asked me if the four games in a day schedule we'd completed on Saturday was some kind of a record, but it isn't.
In actual fact, I once attended five Central Midlands League games in one day and believe that constituted some kind of a world record at the time, for all of us present... but though I can't imagine anybody ever having beaten that total, I couldn't be 100% sure of that claim to be honest.
I recall we got a certificate for having visited five games, on that particularly windy Saturday morning, afternoon and night... and believe me, we really needing certifying by the end of it all!
Sunday 31st March 2019
East of Scotland League - Conference C - 12.30PM
at Whitestone Park
Peebles Rovers (0) 1
David Lindsay 72
Newtowngrange Star (2) 3
Sean Jamieson 13,
Kyle Scott 41,
Ryan Porteous 78
Attendance: 288
Newtongrange Star FC, or 'Nitten' as they're known, within their local community in Midlothian, used to be, back in the day, on the compass my regular roster of football stomping grounds.
But I was completely neutral this afternoon, and in actual fact leaning towards wanting Peebles to win if anything, because once again, the welcome we'd received at this green and pleasant pasture, was quite overwhelming.
But, all told, the visitors were convincing winners, who could possibly have added a couple more goals to their tally.
A well worked passing move opened up the hosts rearguard and afforded Sean Jamieson the time ans space to slash the ball past Tom Kerr from twelve yards out.
Kerr then kept both Ryan Porteous and Steve Thompson at bay, with a great double save.
But Kerr couldn't quite hold onto Kyle Scott's shot in the closing stages of the first half, as the Nitten number seven ran onto a dipping ball into the area and drilled the ball into the bottom right hand corner.
Dale O'Hara was close to adding a third for the visitors, but Kerr did well to turn his effort over the bar, and Neil Lowson headed just wide from Scott's in-swinging flag kick from out on the right.
Rovers pulled a goal back in the seventy second minute, when David Lawson controlled the ball on his chest, before shooting across Jordan Dunsmore and finding the net, from Cammy Slater's sideways knock.
George Hunter was thwarted by Kerr, before Porteous added the third goal for the visitors that his performance deserved, when he slid to connect with the ball and powered it past Kerr from a seemingly impossible acute angle, right by the dead ball line to the left of the goal.
Kerr pulled off another good stop to deny Hunter again late in the day.
And that was that. Six games, thirty six goals immeasurable amounts of camaraderie, but now it was time to head home. After tucking into a very tasty lasagne pie.
FT: Peebles Rovers 1 v Newtongrange Star 3
All told, a chuffin' great weekend was had by all in Scotland... and the decision to travel up again next year, for more of the same, had already been made approximately ten minutes into the second game at Camelon.
As regards a rogues gallery of acknowledgements, there are far too many names, faces and places to mention everyone and everywhere, but massive respect and goodly vibes to each and everyone of you.
Missing you already!
Some photos from several (but not all) games:
Part one: click HERE
Part two: click HERE
