Torture & torment for Kilby
For East Kilbride, Saturday proved to be day of torture and torment.
The Lowland League leaders arrived in the capital in buoyant mood.
After 34 consecutive weeks at the top of the table, this was supposed to be the day they finally clinched their first-ever Lowland League title.
Martin Lauchlan’s men had won 22 times in 26 matches heading into this and one more win would wrap up the trophy and send Kilby into the League Two play-off finals.
However, Civil Service Strollers, sitting 12th in the league table, had other ideas.
They didn’t want Christie Gillies Park to host Kilby’s title party and made sure of it with a battling performance to hold EK to only their third draw of the campaign.
Sean Winter scored and then missed a penalty for Kilby before Strollers went straight up the pitch to net a spot-kick of their own.
It was torture for Winter and his team-mates to see the tide turn so quickly.
The visitors almost tried too hard to grab a winner and the result could have been worse as they left huge gaps at the back, which Strollers failed to exploit late on.
But even as they boarded the bus back to K-Park dejected, East Kilbride’s agony was far from over.
They could still have been crowned champions on Saturday night if Hawick could do them a favour and stop Shire winning in the evening match.
There was still hope – and often it’s the hope that kills you.
What followed was a case of Twitter torment.
The Kilby players were glued to Hawick’s Twitter feed for live updates and huge cheers went up on the Kilby bus as news filtered through of Hawick’s 13th-minute opener from Hamish Hunter.
Shire equalised through Paul Sludden 10 minutes before half-time, but still, as it stood, Kilby were champions.
Kris Mitchell fired Hawick back in front in 57 minutes and the title party was well and truly on.
Even as Shire equalised again through Sludden in 65 minutes, it could still have been Kilby’s day after all.
Going into the final 10 minutes it looked like Hawick could complete another Lowland shock.
Sludden completed his hat-trick in the 80th minute to continue the yo-yo of emotions, but even then STILL there was hope.
A Hawick equaliser and all would be well. With players and fans alike constantly refreshing their feeds for news, the torment continued until, in the 90th minute, a fourth Sludden goal killed off all hope of a title party.
And so Kilby have to pick themselves up for Saturday and a trip to the Borders.
The wait for EK’s first league title will have to go on a little longer.