Second-half fightback helps Hutchie Vale defeat Leith Athletic

A stirring second-half display won the South East Region Cup for Hutchison Vale 13s as they defeated Leith Athletic 3-1.

Hutchison Vale 13s

After being under the cosh for the first half, the tables were completely turned in the second half with Hutchie doing most of the pressing.

The goals came from Lewis Foster, Taylor Steven and Aaron Waller, with Steven having a hand in all three.

It was a battle between the two Division One champions, with Hutchie having won section A and Leith topping section B.

Leith were first to show their quality, generating chance after chance in the first half.

After three minutes, Daniel Fennell raced on to the ball on the right hand side, advanced into the box and fired over. Fennell then set up Brodie Watt who found Hutchie goalie Logan Robertson in the way before Kyle Craig cleared.

The pace and skill of attacking trio Fennell, Watt and Connor Young was driving Leith forward at every opportunity.

Fennell had another shot parried out for a corner by Robertson and then Leon McDonald rattled the crossbar with a free-kick. Jordan Young then strode forward out of defence before unleashing a rocket which also smacked off the bar.

Vale tried a number of through balls on the counter, but did not manage to get the correct angles on their passes in order for them to come off.

Before the half was out Young slashed across goal from the left of the box and McDonald had a curling effort tipped away again by Robertson.

That Robertson picked up the man of the match award demonstrates how dominant Leith were in the first half, but a step up in efforts from Hutchie saw them grow in an attacking sense after the break. Sam Kilboy led the way, winning the ball before showing quick feet and firing wide.

Kilboy was increasing in stature in the middle of the park and he broke forward to slip a pass to Foster, but the striker was caught offside.

He was better placed to finally break the deadlock after 46 minutes. Steven’s cross from the left found Foster and he quickly got the ball out of his feet to tuck it home.

A glorious chance came the way of Steven shortly after as he ran clear of the Leith defence and slipped the ball past Finlay Sinclair, but it kept going beyond the post.

He more than made up for that with a splendid second goal 14 minutes from time. Matthew Dalglish set him free and he produced a quality dinked finish into the top right corner.

Leith were heartbroken at how the game had slipped away from them after their first half showing, but worse was to come. A whipped delivery from Steven’s corner landed on the head of Waller and he planted it beyond Sinclair.

Leith managed a consolation in the last minute and it was quality play from Watt. He won the ball to the right of the box before burrowing his way into the area and tucking it away.

Leith Athletic: Finlay Sinclair, Maksymillian Plutka, Zak Williamson, Ben Moffat, Jamie Rudden, Cameron Chambers, Brodie Watt, Leon McDonald, Ben Aitchison, Charles Harte, Jordan Young, Daniell Fennell, Jason Meikle, Michele Mardenduzzo, Connor Young, Louie Buckley.

Hutchison Vale: Logan Robertson, Ruairidh Adams, Zak Robb, Keir Brown, Aaron Waller, Sam Melrose, Ciaran Heeps, Bruno Davidson, Murray Connolly, Taylor Steven, Matthew Dalglish, Sam Kilboy, Lewis Foster, Kyle Craig, Danny Chisholm, Aidan Eddington, Jake Houten, Kai Gibson.