Ex-Hibee Colin Nish on the rise with Tranent as Hearts are beaten

Tranent boss Colin Nish hailed his side’s work rate as the Foresters Park men jumped up to fourth in the Lowland League with a hard-fought 3-2 win away to Hearts B.

On the back of a disappointing 2-1 reverse to Gretna last weekend, former Hibs striker Nish made two changes to his starting eleven with Cammie Ross and Jamie Docherty dropping out for Kris Renton and Martin Maughan.

The visitors got off to a flyer after three minutes through Maughan’s pinpoint strike, but they were pegged back when 18-year-old striker Makenzie Kirk fired in for the young Jambos after 12 minutes.

Kirk netted from the penalty spot midway through the first half, only for Kris Renton to level prior to the interval with a fine header from Kieran Somerville’s cross.

Colin Nish has taken Tranent up to fourth in the Lowland League.

Both sides had chances to edge in front in the second half, but it was an unlikely scorer in Tranent centre-back Euan Bald who found the winner, showing a striker’s instinct to fire past Hearts goalkeeper Liam McFarlane after Ross headed Ben Miller’s free-kick into the six yard box.

“It was a very difficult game,” said Nish. “We give away stupid goals at times, but I thought Hearts caused us a lot of problems with their movement, they are young boys who are coached very well and they made it really difficult for us.

“Being an older, experienced side, we tried to use that to our advantage. We normally play our passing game a wee bit better, but we adjusted to the conditions and what we were up against, and fortunately enough we managed to get that goal in the second half to win the game.

“It was good to get the three points based on the fact we didn’t win on Saturday, we felt like we should have got more out of the game on Saturday and we were really disappointed, but getting the three points tonight makes up for that.

“I am delighted for the boys because they put a lot of work in; they are part-time football players and to play Saturday-Wednesday, Saturday-Wednesday, it’s really, really difficult for them but they didn’t half put a shift in.”

Nish has been in the Foresters Park hotseat for little over a month after joining from Hibs, and revealed it’s been a steep learning curve.

He continued: “I have enjoyed it so far; I am just sort of learning about the guys and about the league. I am well aware of the development clubs, but in terms of the other teams, I am still learning a wee bit. There is a lot of good sides and good players in the league. We have just come up, so we are just trying to see where we are in terms of what quality we’ve got compared to other teams.

“I am impressed with the quality of the squad I took over. I will evaluate the squad and see if we can bring in players to improve us and what areas we need to improve, that’s a work in progress just now.

“We are probably higher in the league than where we were when we took over. The aim at the end of the day is just to do as well as we can this season and try and improve things.”