ON a lovely Sunday morning at St Augustine’s High School playing fields, Tynecastle East under-13s booked their place in the final of the Peter O’Neill Cup with a magnificent 3-1 win against a very good Edinburgh City side.

The Tynie terrors went 1-0 down in the 14^th minute of this game played on a big pitch that suited the passing style of both teams. Kieran McGachie is was who gave City a deserved lead when he finished off a good break, firing the ball past opposition goalie, Daniel Duffy, at the second attempt to make it 1-0 for Edinburgh City.

Playing their lovely passing game, the home side looked to be in a good commanding position, but the Tynecastle kids did not let their heads drop and it was they who went on to take charge of the game with their all-action style of play! They hit back at City and they got back on level terms in the 31^st minute with a freak goal, a huge punt in to the goalmouth from away out on the left wing from Stuart Duncanson taking a crazy bounce in the City goalmouth to bounce over Lee Miller’s outstretched arms and in to the net to make the score 1-1 at the break.

Paul Fergie had looked good for Tynecastle East in the first half and it was this pacy youngster playing up front who was to cause the City defenders all sorts of problems in the second half of the game. The effort put in to the game by the visiting side upped the pace of the game and it became much more like a cup-tie in the second half with Tynecastle East looking the likelier side to score the longer the game went on!

The proof of that came when Fergie outpaced his marker in the City defence to fire a good shot in to the left-hand side of the City net to put Tynecastle East 2-1 ahead. Edinburgh City could not match the energy of the visitors who went even further in front when the alert Scott Aitken took advantage of a mistake in the City goalmouth to fire the ball in to the empty net to take the score to 3-1.

That was still the score when Mike Smith, another of the excellent match officials from the Edinburgh District Branch of the SFA Referees blew for time up. The way Tynecastle and their fans celebrated this win gave the impression it was an unexpected triumph. Well done to them and congratulations, too, to Edinburgh City for not letting the disappointment of losing affect their sportsmanship and they duly lined up to shake the hands of the winners in a nice gesture to mark the end a good cup semi-final.

Tynecastle East – Daniel Duffy, Paul Keiller, Jamie Anderson, Conor Horribine, Calum Donaldson, Jack Ramage, Danny Hubbard, Scott Aitken, Paul Fergie, Craig Robertson, Ryan Russell, Zachary Shapero, Stuart Duncanson, Calum Dalgliesh.

Edinburgh City – Lee Miller, Lewis Bain, Ryan Hutchison, Justin Thompson, Chris Kane, David McNeil, Chris Tobin, Calum Milligan, Jordan Low, Kieran McGachie, Greg Murray, Calum Irvine, Callum Lewis, Ryan McLean.

Referee – Mike Smith.