Heston Rovers 3

Peebles Rovers 4

Neil Hobson at Palmerston Park

THE records just keep tumbling for Ger Rossi’s side.

It’s not hard to put into context how far this Rovers team has come this season - the simple fact is that they’re winning whereas last season they were not.

On the plastic pitch at Palmerston they ran Heston Rovers ragged on their own patch.

And they reached the third round of the South Challenge Cup for the first time in their history.

Even more significantly, this was the first ever meeting between the two sides – and what a meeting it was.

Peebles flew out of the traps from the off, against a Heston side that are riding high in the South of Scotland league, with Alan McMath, Ger Rossi and Jason Newell all seeing chances palmed away by a shell-shocked Heston ‘keeper.

All that pressure was bound to lead to something, with the match exploding into life on 24 minutes after a Gregor Lamb through-ball found McMath.

The striker, on six goals this season, bore down on the ‘keeper before lashing the ball high into the net.

McMath then returned the favour with a through ball for Lamb but under pressure from a last gasp defensive lunge, fired his shot just over the bar from the edge of the box.

Heston finally managed to get a foothold in the game around the half-hour mark and a quick ball over the top of the Peebles defence saw Ben McGinley tested for the first time.

Soon after, the home side forced a corner and the low delivery caught the Peebles defence out as the ball bounced off David Lindsay to pull the home side level.

The second-half saw Peebles re-gain control of a match they otherwise dominated, with Ross Lamb playing in his brother Gregor with a reverse pass which was cleared for a corner.

Lindsay swung the ball in and Newell was on hand to fire a close range header into the net to put Peebles back in front on 52 minutes.

Rovers’ intense pressure soon paid off again with a smart one-touch passing sequence ending with Jamie Mackay playing in a low cross for McMath to stroke into the net after 58 minutes to give Peebles some daylight.

Right on the 90 minute mark, Rovers produced a spell of fantastic one-touch passing with Saul Schulz-Keith speeding away to swap passes with Rossi, who unselfishly rolled the ball to McMath who made no mistake from close range to complete his hat-trick.

At 4-1 up going into injury time, it all seemed like a closed case, but a bizarre last couple of minutes saw Heston pull one back with a rare piece of slack defending before a soft penalty for the home side saw them cut the deficit to one with the last kick of the ball.

But it counted for little, as Rovers booked their spot in round three of the South Challenge Cup.

And they have been rewarded with an away trip to Broadwood to face Cumbernauld Colts.