Clean sheet earns point for Hawick Royal Albert but boss Kenny Aitchison disappointed not to have won

Greg Ford about to get a shot away for Hawick Royal Albert versus Thornton Hibs on Saturday (Pic: Steve Cox)

Hawick Royal Albert kept a clean sheet for the first time since January at home to Thornton Hibs on Saturday to pick up their fourth point of the current East of Scotland Football League second division season.

Albert manager Kenny Aitchison says he’d have been happy with that return prior to kick-off but, so dominant were his side on the day, he ended up feeling cheated out of another two points.

Home goalkeeper Jordan Richardson was little more than a bystander until just over 20 minutes from the final whistle, by which time his team-mate Greg Ford had hit the Fifers’ crossbar and side-netting and forced their stopper, Calum Sutherland, into making two saves and had another shot blocked by Stuart Drummond.

Saturday’s 0-0 draw – their first clean sheet since their 3-0 home win against Peebles Rovers over ten months ago – leaves the Royalists still propping up the table, with four points from 13 games, six points adrift of safety but with three games in hand on the three teams immediately above them, Hibs, having played a match more, being ten league places and 23 points better off.

Hawick Royal Albert's Harry Fowler and Thornton Hibs' Matthew Robertson vying for the ball at Albert Park on Saturday (Pic: Steve Cox)

“Before the game, I certainly would have taken a point based on the gulf between the two teams in the league table,” said Aitchison.

“I’d say that overall we created the better chances and were very unlucky not to win.

“Our defence was very comfortable. Watching it, I was thinking ‘why are we bottom of the table and why are we so far away from this team based on what I’m seeing?’

“That’s credit to the guys. We did say months ago that it would take time for the team to click and I think we saw that happening on Saturday.

Yuan Fang in action for Hawick versus Thornton Hibs at the weekend (Pic: Steve Cox)

“We could easily have won and got an extra two points but we’re not going to dwell on that. We’re going to look at the positives. That’s another good game and it’ll give us cause for optimism going into our game this Saturday against Easthouses Lily.

“It’s a game we can win definitely and it would be nice to get our first league win.”

This weekend’s match is away in Midlothian, with kick-off at 1.30pm, and their hosts go into it sitting 13th in the table, on 14 points from 16 games.

Albert drew the corresponding fixture last season in the old first division conference B 1-1 in November 2021 but went on to lose to Lily 2-1 at home in January.