Hart hopes derby win will breed confidence in Tynie youngsters

Manager Rob Hart hopes their comeback derby win over Hutchison Vale can give his side confidence going into the rest of the East of Scotland Premier Division campaign.

Tynie striker Russell Cairns bagged a second half double to secure all three points away to their local rivals last Saturday after going behind, giving Hart’s side their first victory since late November.

Hart was confident their luck would turn given their performance levels during their five-game winless run.

“We’ve had some very, very good performances, some strong performances against what has essentially been against the top half of the table,” said Hart.

“We’ve scored goals and we’ve looked like we were going to score goals. As I kept saying to the boys, we had been unfortunate, and the rub of the green didn’t go our way sometimes. The boys have been great.

“We know we are getting somewhere. When you aren’t creating chances and when the team looks lacking in desire, that’s when you start to worry, but we didn’t get to that stage.

“We started the season really well and then we had a dip in form, and we had a couple of really poor results; I think the experience of that has hopefully helped us. We’ve had some fantastic performances from some really young players at this level.”

Hart continued: “There had been some warning signs, we had some really good performances and our away form had been excellent since we got beat away to Broxburn last year. We were on the ball on Saturday, we were quick to start the game and get a hold of the game.

“The back five defensively were tremendous, and they gave us more of a solid foundation to go forward and attack in the second half. After their goal, we went up through the gears and created chances, Rusty [Cairns] took two and we could have probably had more. With all due respect to Hutchie, they hit the bar late on, but apart from the goal, Murray [Jackson] had one save to make.

“It was even sweeter that the win came in the derby. Saturday felt like we played to our potential, particularly in the second half.

“We can go on about the performance levels and do analysis to show them how well they have been doing but ultimately, results breed confidence. Fingers crossed it gives us a good bit of confidence going into the rest of the season.”

Third place Jeanfield Swifts, who still have aspirations of catching league leaders Broxburn Athletic, visit Meggetland this afternoon.

Broxburn hold a 14-point lead over the Perthshire outfit, but Jeanfield have three games in hand, and will be aiming to cut that gap with victory in the capital.

Hart says his side have to perform even better than last week if they wish to come out on the right side of the result.

He added: “Jeanfield are a really good side with a lot of quality in the forward areas so we are going to have to be as good as were defensively last week, and probably better with the ball than we were last week, because if we don’t look after it, they will punish us.”