Bo’ness United will face what is most likely to be their hardest game of the season so far when they visit high flying Lowland League side East Kilbride in the South Challenge Cup. East Kilbride have genuine aspirations of entering the Scottish Football League and are unbeaten in their quest so far this season. They are sitting just one point behind Spartans but with a game in hand.

The South Challenge Cup is for member clubs of the East of Scotland League, Scottish Lowland League and South of Scotland League, that is all the non league sides in the south of Scotland.

East Kilbride came into being in its current form in 2010 born out of Stewartville FC and Jacktonville Boys Club. They have a large number of teams as part of the community club and are based at the K Park Training Academy set inside the picturesque Calderglen Country Park. They lost out on Saturday going down narrowly at home to SFL side Edinburgh City in the Irn Bru Cup. They had beaten Spartans in the first round earlier in the season.

Bo’ness can take hope from the fact that Jeanfield Swifts defeated East Kilbride at K Park in the Football Nation Cup and other East of Scotland teams also triumphed against Lowland League opposition in the same competition. It may be that the South Lanarkshire side underestimated the former Junior team and the BUs know East Kilbride will have learned from that experience. The BUs go into this contest on an eight game winning series having lost only their first game against Jeanfield. That record will be sorely tested at the weekend but Bo’ness will be looking to maintain the run as well as testing themselves against a team from a higher league.

The BUs are the underdogs in this fixture their situation not helped with injuries preventing the manager achieving a settled side. The players selected know they need to be at their best to have any chance of winning but what will help them on the day is a large BU contingent to give them the noisy support that can spur Bo’ness onto victory.

John Spowart