East Kilbride clash Broxburn Athletic's acid test in Lowland League, admits boss Stevie Pittman

Broxburn boss Stevie Pittman admits this weekend’s crunch clash with defending Lowland League champions East Kilbride will be the acid test of their credentials in their first season in the fifth tier.

The Brox have enjoyed a strong start to the campaign since winning promotion from the East of Scotland League last season and sit third in the table, just a point behind second place Kilby and two off of leaders Celtic B, with a game in hand.

From their opening six games, Brox have won five of them amid a 6-2 humbling against West Lothian rivals Linlithgow Rose that Pittman puts down to selection errors on his part.

Kilby come calling to Albyn Park on Saturday and Pittman knows this will tell just what his players could be capable of this season.

He said: “The East Kilbride game will tell us how far we’ve come. They won the league last season but we don’t fear any teams.

“We’ve got our feet on the ground, we don’t think we’ll run away with the league or anything, but we want to finish as high up the table as we can. For teams to beat us, they’ll need to be at it. The only blip we’ve had is the Linlithgow game but I put that down to me picking the wrong team. We should still not have lost the game 6-2 but it told us that if we drop our standards we will get punished.

“Everybody understands that and we know the standards we have to hit at the club. We are just enjoying it and taking each game as it comes. We will give it our best shot against East Kilbride and see where it takes us. We are looking forward to it.”

Pittman says some ‘moments of magic’ helped Broxburn see off gritty Gretna on Saturday to maintain a fine start to their maiden Lowland League campaign.

After a good 3-0 win over Gala Fairydean last midweek, The