Hutchison Vale won
a bruising Scottish Cup semi-final over their Glasgow opponents
at Paties Road to set up a Scottish Cup Final date with Dyce BC
on Sunday 11th May.2 terrific goals from
David Welsh put Vale ahead after Westerton had taken a 14th
minute lead before the unfortunate Scott McIntosh put through
his own goal with 19 minutes left to play.
Referee Kenneth Dear brandished an array of yellow cards as
tackle after tackle came flying in, in what was a stop start
affair. But it was the Edinburgh side that played all the
football that was on display and deservedly progress to the
Final in 3 weeks time.
A decent sized crowd
had turned up at Paties Road to see two of Scotland top U16
sides go head to head. But the opening exchanges offered little
in the way of excitement for them as the game got off to a slow
start.
The only action worthy of note being a
chance for Hutchie's Gary Waddell who pounced on a fumble by
Westerton goalkeeper, Sean McLaughlin, after a long ball from
wide on the left. But he was able to recover and block Waddell's
shot.
Westerton
had probably opened a bit brighter than Vale and their long ball
game was causing the Edinburgh side's back four a few problems
with big Ross Leebody using his pace to get in behind. And
on 14 minutes the Glasgow side took the lead.
A good ball was played in from the right hand side and Leebody
knocked it towards the back post where Peter Bowman was lurking
unmarked. The Westerton player cracked a shot off the post and
it fell to Josh Tevendale who was following up from the
centre of the box and he smashed it into the net.
Suddenly it was game on and Hutchison Vale found themselves
behind. But urged on by their supporters they took the game to
Westerton and scored a terrific equalising goal on 21 minutes.
Gary Waddell was the provider, playing an inch perfect cross on
the run from the right onto the head of centre forward David
Welsh and he directed his header away from the goalkeeper
and into the top left hand corner of the net.
Welsh had another chance 5 minutes later. He twisted and turned
on the edge of the box before hitting a dipping shot that was
brilliantly tipped over by Sean McLaughlin.
Hutchie were now beginning to dominate the game with any
Westerton attacks coming on the break from long balls.
With
33 minutes gone the home side thought they had taken the lead
when Aaron Scott headed home from a corner but as the players
celebrated the linesman flagged that the corner had swung out of
play before meeting Scott's head. It looked a perfectly good
goal but a bye kick was the decision.
With
Vale contesting the decision, Westerton took a long bye kick
which found its way through to Ross Leebody and he was one on
one against Vale goalkeeper, Daniel Gunn, and he produced a
magnificent stop when it looked odds on that Leebody would
score.
Half Time 1-1
Hutchison Vale were starting to find their feet in this
semi-final and the midfield trio of Greig Paterson, Aaron Scott
and Stephen McGinn were spraying passes around the pitch. The
quick passing of the home side was being matched by "tigerish"
tackling by the Glasgow side and some of the challenges were
becoming dangerous.
The
more Vale played the ball around the pitch the more the lunges
became common. But Hutchison Vale managed to play their way into
a 2-1 lead on 47 minutes when a poor clearance by Sean
McLaughlin was magnificently slotted home by David Welsh
from 35 yards.
A Stephen McGinn pass down the left hand channel was reacted to
by McLaughlin who rushed to the edge of his box to clear. But he
could only skew into the path of Welsh and he looked up and
floated the ball into the empty net as the Westerton keeper
tried, in vein, to recover.
The Westerton
keeper did better on 55 minutes when he pulled off a great
reaction save to thwart Hutchison Vale captain Greig Paterson.
Good refereeing by Kenneth Dear saw play pulled back for a free
kick on the right hand side after no advantage materialised. The
ball was played into the front post by James Elliott and
Paterson flicked the ball goalwards but McLaughlin threw himself
to his left and turned the ball away for a corner.
On 61 minutes Hutchison Vale got a slice of luck that put this
tie beyond Westerton. An innocuous looking ball was played in
across the face of the goal where it was deflected wildly into
his own net by Scott McIntosh.
The home
side had another chance on 68 minutes when a looping header came
back off the bar and by this time the visitors from Glasgow had
completely fallen out of this game. The action was almost all
towards the Westerton goal with the Glasgow side left to compete
"harder" as the game ran away from them. The worst of the
tackles ended Gary Waddell's game when he was caught by a very
late lunge by Ruairidh Fraser on the right wing. The Westerton
player was shown a yellow card for the tackle but it probably
should have been red.
The remaining minutes
were played out comfortably by Hutchison Vale who, although they
will wake up tomorrow covered in bruises having been in a tough
tie, thoroughly deserved this win. They dominated most of this
match and probably could have scored more than the 3 that they
did.
They now look forward to a Scottish Cup
Final on the 11th May where they will share Edinburgh's hopes
with Leith Athletic's U17 side. Vale will meet the very good
Aberdeen outfit, Dyce BC, who knocked the Leith side's U16 team
out of the Scottish Cup in the quarter finals.
The home side were applauded from the pitch by their supporters
and the boys were soon bouncing to the sounds of Chelsea Dagger
in the Hutchison Vale changing room as they celebrated their
win, albeit probably dancing a little tenderly.
