Blair Henderson hat-trick ticks off another win for Lowland League title hopefuls Spartans

It was a tale of the two Blairs has Spartans registered a 4-0 victory to maintain their pace at the top of the Lowland League.
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The Ainslie Park outfit ran riot at Islecroft on Saturday with in-form Blair Henderson netting a hat-trick and defender Kevin Waugh also on target in the Borders.

Goalkeeper Blair Carswell, meanwhile, registered his fourth successive clean sheet as Dougie Samuel's men remain in second spot, just two points adrift of leaders Rangers B.

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Victory over the league's bottom club was their 19th of an impressive campaign so far with Spartans now within a real shot of securing a first league title since 2018.

Blair Henderson gets a shot away against Dalbeattie. Picture: Mark Brown.Blair Henderson gets a shot away against Dalbeattie. Picture: Mark Brown.
Blair Henderson gets a shot away against Dalbeattie. Picture: Mark Brown.

Samuel said afterwards: "It was a good performance on a soft pitch which cut up, but it was in good condition considering recent weather. I was delighted we created and achieved 20 plus goal attempts on the day, and to record another clean sheet. Blair Carswell's record is first class, better than one in three and Blair led the line superbly and deserved his latest hat-trick. He's been in fantastic form, it's great to have him scoring goals again after a run without scoring."

He continued: "There's still a fifth of the league campaign to go so there are sure to be some ups and downs to come for everyone at the top end of the table, especially with so many head-to-head games still to be played. We're enjoying being in the mix, and along with several others, have given ourselves a chance to achieve something special."

Elsewhere, Tranent Juniors went down 2-0 to Rangers to dent their title hopes, a result that leaves Colin Nish's men fifth in the standings and seven points behind their opponents.

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First-half goals at Dumbarton from Charlie Lindsay and James Graham consigned the Foresters Park men to just their sixth defeat this season.

Next weekend sees Spartans host East Stirlingshire while Tranent will try and claw back those in front of them when Dalbeattie are the visitors to East Lothian.

Edinburgh University will attempt to secure just their third win of a disappointing year when they host Caledonian Braves at East Perffermill.

Civil Service Strollers are at Gretna 2008 and Hearts B travel to Celtic B.