Hearts fans race to make Scottish Cup final after fellow supporter finds lost tickets

Laura Hunter and her friend, Britney Anderson, holding their tickets. Pic: contributed

Laura Hunter realised she'd lost the four tickets - the other three being for her best pal, dad and his friend - while getting into a taxi at the top of Waverley Steps, shortly after getting off a bus from Tranent.

Race against time to reunite fans with 4 Scottish Cup final tickets found on Wav...

Despite retracing her steps the 20-year-old had no luck and took a taxi back to her East Lothian home to hunt for the tickets. But this came to nothing and she travelled in the same taxi all the way back to the BMC Club in Gorgie, resulting in a £60 fare.

The Evening News reported earlier today that Hearts fans, John Tulleth and Stephen Topping, found four lost Scottish Cup final tickets on Waverley Steps. John appealed in the Jambos Kickback supporters group to reunite them with their rightful owners.

In the post, John said he was en route to Hampden by train and would hand the tickets in to the ground staff if he didn't hear back from anyone.

But after arriving at the BMC, Laura was informed of John's post and made contact with him to sort out collection of their tickets from an entrance supervisor at the stadium.

The foursome were up against time and arrived into Glasgow by train just before the kick-off time of 3pm, then rushed for a taxi to get to the match - only missing the first 10 minutes.

Laura (middle) with John Tulleth (blue sweater), who found her tickets - along with their friends and family.

Hearts ultimately lost the game to Celtic 2-1 despite the Jambos' Ryan Edwards opening the scoring after 52 minutes.

Speaking after the game, Laura thanked John for the ticket appeal and said: "Win or lose, I'm Hearts through and through and this proves how good a club we have in Edinburgh. What a club we support.

"The Evening News article helped by making people aware we had lost them and that they were ours so no one else could collect them."

At half time, Laura and her friend Britney, along with her dad John and his friend, Derek, met up with John Tulleth and his friends and family for a group photo.

Despite the end result, Laura added: "It was an unbelievable atmosphere and was totally worth it."

Speaking after the game, John Tulleth said he experienced a strangely similar situation when travelling with friends to the Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle.

John, who now lives in Milton Keynes, said he managed to leave all nine tickets to the game at home after they were caught up in his daughter's revision notes.

Despite the SFA saying Hearts could reprint them, John said this never happened and he ended up forking out hundreds of pounds for new ones.

He stressed that the SFA were helpful about the situation but that Hearts blocked the reprinting.

John, who has been a Hearts fan for more than 30 years, said it had been an older couple who initially found Laura's tickets on Waverley Steps and they handed them to him.

He said: "It just shows you the power of social media.

"It was great to get someone to the game with my story from the semi-final being similar but ending up so different. They were delighted.

"Hearts didn't win but it was a great day out and the Hearts support was fantastic."