EoS League: Success for Heriot-Watt not just about points

The students secured a 3-1 victory over Peebles Rovers at Riccarton on Saturday – Elliot Sutherland’s brace and Neil Laurenson with the goals for Koya’s side.

Watt are also on the verge of qualifying for the League Cup knockout stages following two victories from their four group matches.

But Koya, who took the reins from Ian Little who moved on to pastures new with Livingston this summer, says winning matches is just a bonus.

“Of course it was great to get three points,” he said. “But we’ve got a lot of young players so it’s not all about winning for us. Our ethos is to develop these guys into better players and better people and anything else is a bonus. That’s the way we see it. Our back four on Saturday consisted of two 19-year-olds, one 18 and another 17 so we want them to learn the game here.

“It’s very early days and we’re not getting carried away. It’s about the process and where that takes us come the end of the season. We take each week, each training session and it’s not about ‘can we win this, can we win that’.”

Elsewhere, current league champions Leith Athletic got their title defence off to a flier with a 6-0 thumping of Tweedmouth Rangers at Meadowbank 3G.

Captain Neil Lowson’s goal was the pick of the bunch, a controlled volley into the top left corner. Scott Wilson, Daniel McKinlay, James Hainey, John Ferguson and Sean Melvin were also on target for Derek Riddel’s men.

Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale were 4-0 victors at Coldstream.

In the Alex Jack Cup, Tynecastle romped to a 9-0 victory over Eyemouth United at Saughton Enclosure to set up a semi-final showdown with Capital rivals Heriot-Watt University. Stewart Adams hit a hat-trick with Stephen Manson also grabbing a brace.

Meanwhile, Ormiston picked up a morale-boosting win with a 7-3 triumph over Burntisland Shipyard at Recreation Park in their final League Cup Group A match. However, Richie Weir’s outfit have failed to qualify for the next phase.