TYNECASTLE and Cavalry Park took part in the first of the seven finals in the lovely Dunbar United stadium in Hallhill, with the sun shining down on the players as they kicked off the brilliantly organised City Financial Edinburgh Eastern Region Cup bonanza. This under-14 final was the first of seven to take place over the two days at this glorious facility at Hallhill Healthy Living Centre.

The players from both teams were all listed in the top-class programme produced by Eastern Region Youth FA official, Chris Dale and the names of the players were also announced before each of the seven finals over the PA system at Hallhill. With each game starting with a presentation of teams to Andrew Ramage and Gary Henderson of the sponsors, City Financial Edinburgh, it was indeed a true festival of youth football.

The power and pace of the Tynecastle under-14 side proved to be too much to handle for the brave Cavalry Park outfit in the first of the seven games. And it was the massive Tynecastle striker, Rory Burton, who went on to illustrate the important advantage the boys in maroon had over the rivals when it came to scoring goals – particularly in quick breaks up the pitch. The Cavalry Park goalkeeper was under fire from the opening whistle from match official, Alan Watson, and the assaults on his goal continued right up the final whistle. Surprisingly, the score was still 0-0 at the break and that can be attrubuted to the bravery and rearguard action of the Cavalry Park players as they demonstrated their tremendous commitment and good organisation to keep Burton and his team-mates from establishing a good lead.

It was a very brave show, indeed, from the team representing this excellent club based in Holy Rood High School in Duddingston. But it was only a matter of time before Tynecastle put the ball in the Cavalry Park net and the first of the four goals they scored in the second half came quickly after the restart following the half-time break. A big clearance out of the Tynecastle goalmouth over the heads of the opposition defence allowed Burton to use his power and speed to win control of the ball before homing in on the Cavalry Park goal to fire a low shot in to the net to put his side 1-0 up. Then Ben McKenzie, another of the powerful front-runners in the Tynecaste squad found the back of the net with a cracking shot from the right of the 18yd box to make it 2-0.

These two goals were a blow to the morale of the Cavalry Park side and, for a while, they struggled to keep Tynecastle from scoring more goals. But another goal duly came along and it was McKenzie who fired in another shot at the Cavalry Park goal and, when the ball broke loose, Burton was perfectly placed to put it in to the net to increase the score to 3-0 in favour of Tynecastle. The fourth and last goal of the came was set up for Burton to complete his hat-trick by Lewis Turner, who sent a great pass through the middle for the big striker to flick the ball in to the Cavalry Park net to make it 4-0.

Possibly, it was with great relief to the losing side to see Burton being substituted midway through the second half. Ryan D’Angelo was another Tynecastle player who showed good touches and he also caused further problems for the tiring Cavalry Park defence. With several substitutions from both sides, the game became much more even towards the finish but Tynecastle were still much too big and strong at the back to allow their opponents the chance to score a consolation goal.

A Tynecastle spokesman said: “Once we got ahead in the second half, we were able to bring on our subs. It was nice for them to have a good run in the final. We took a while to get the opening goal but we played very well from then on. All credit to Cavalry Park for keeping us out for so long!” Not surprisingly, Burton it was who also picked up the individual award of Player-of-the-Match at the close of play. This award at all seven finals was sponsored by Edinburgh City Youth FC.
 

Tynecastle FC – Kenneth Brown, Ryan Hall, Connor Amstrong, Calvin Smith, Keith Millar, Jordan Fyvie, Ryan D’Angelo, Benjamin McKenzie, Anton McKillop, Liam Riordan, Lewis Turner, Tom Sanderson, Kevin Taylor, Jack Cree, James Elliot, Andrew Sinclair, Rory Burton.

Cavalry Park – Connor Power, Ross Watson, Dalton Day, John McDonald, Matthew Watson, Jason Risi, Danny Fisher, Richard Milligan, Lewis Tracey, Craig Greenhill, Lee Reilly, Scott Harrison, Kieran Stimpson, Dale Cartion,Sean Pryde, Evan Gray, Marc Dunn.

Referee – Alan Watson.