Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale backed to take second chance and set up Scottish Cup derby with Edinburgh City

Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale striker Errol Douglas has backed his team-mates to seize the opportunity to set up a Scottish Cup third round derby with Edinburgh City after his late equaliser secured them a cup lifeline.

Errol Douglas has backed his Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale team-mates to reach the Scottish Cup third round

Douglas put a penalty miss behind him to salvage a cup replay when he netted a 90th minute header against Dunbar United to take their East of Scotland Premier rivals back to Ainslie Park tomorrow. With the carrot of a home tie against League Two City dangling there for the victors, Douglas is hopeful they can raise a performance.

“I didn’t have a great game at all last week, and I think a lot of the boys didn’t do themselves justice, as a team we didn’t play that well,” said Douglas.

“We didn’t have the best of games, it was scrappy at times, but at least we are still in the tie and that’s the main thing. I thought it was going to be one of those days, but when we got the penalty I was pretty confident I could put it away as I had scored four out of four this season before it.

“I hit the bar and it went over, and I thought from then on nothing was going to go for us, but we kept on creating chances and I knew if one fell to me I would have a good chance of taking it. Thankfully Dylan’s [Moore] cross was brilliant and it was an easy enough header to put away.

“It’s a big game for the club; to get into the third round is a massive opportunity, so hopefully we can take it. It’s a home tie for both of us if we can get through against Edinburgh City, so we know the goal waiting for us, but we are just focusing on Dunbar first and trying to get over the line.

“We know we made silly mistakes in the game, a lot of fouls were given away so if we can tidy that up then there is no reason why we can’t beat them. They beat us earlier in the season 3-1, but there was a few of us out injured, so we didn’t have a full-strength team and at that period we were going through some bad form. We have had decent results since then, and if we play well there is a good chance we will go through.”

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