Hutchison Vale book their place in the Scottish Cup first round after defeating Edinburgh rivals Tynecastle

Hutchison Vale will be hoping for a home draw in the first round

Hutchison Vale are dreaming of another famous Scottish Cup run as they sealed their place in Sunday night’s first round draw.

Hutchie edged past local rivals Tynecastle in an all-East of Scotland preliminary round two clash at Meggetland on Saturday, with Callum Donaldson’s 78th minute cross going all the way in for the only goal of the afternoon.

Visiting boss Ryan Harding felt it was just what his side deserved, with the match looking likely to go to extra-time.

“These kinds of games, in the Scottish Cup, it doesn’t matter if you win 1-0 or 10-0, it is all about getting into the next round, so I am absolutely delighted,” said Harding.

“I thought we dominated the whole game, they had a 15 or 20 minute spell in the first half, but as much as we dominated the game, I don’t think we really created many clear cut chances. They played quite deep, and it was waves of attack at times.

“Sometimes it only takes one [chance] and fortunately enough we took it. It wasn’t the clearest of goals it was cross stroke shot which wee Danny [Chisholm] claimed he got a touch on, but if he doesn’t touch it, it’s going in anyway.

“Every club at our level, for many reasons, hope for a cup run. You need a wee bit of luck with the draw. Clubs like us, financially it is massive; you go few a couple of rounds and for a club of our size it is huge.

“You get a feel-good factor if you go through a couple of rounds and you can sort of carry that into your league form. We are undefeated in three now so hopefully we can keep up a bit of momentum.”

On-loan Spartans goalkeeper Ryan Meek produced a match-winning save in added time to deny Scott Jardine’s goalbound header and prevent the tie being prolonged another 30 minutes.

Harding continued: “It was a great save at the end, he’s not had a lot to do, but the save was superb. For a young goalkeeper that’s what you want, concentration, because if you look at it, he’s not had a save to make in the second half, and then that’s when you think of young players, are they switched on? It was the 93rd minute, he makes the save to keep the ball out of the net and it’s a clean sheet for him.”

Tynecastle boss Rob Hart was magnanimous in defeat, admitting the visitors deserved their victory.

“I thought we let ourselves down a wee bit, but full credit to Hutchie, from the first whistle to the last they were ready, and they did great,” said Hart.

“We had a feeling it would be tight, and it went that way, it was tight match. For me, Hutchie deserved it, they were organised and they made it very difficult for us, but ultimately we didn’t play well enough.

“There were improvements for us as the last couple of games were really difficult, but we just weren’t relaxed enough on the ball, we didn’t keep it and move it well enough.”

Fellow East of Scotland clubs Broxburn Athletic, Penicuik Athletic, Whitehill Welfare, Dunbar United, Musselburgh Athletic and Dalkeith Thistle all join Hutchie in tonight’s draw after victories on Saturday.