Tynecastle on a charge for EoS title

The Saughton-based club are hot on the heels of leaders and champions Leith Athletic having cut their lead to just two points courtesy of their 6-3 victory over Coldstream on Saturday. The duo will meet at Meadowbank 3G on January 21 but Tynie have the small matter of another Capital derby before then when they meet Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale in the first game after the winter break on January 7.

“We’ve got an absolutely huge January with both Lothian and Leith to play, make no mistake about it,” Vinter said. “But we could go through the rest of the season unbeaten and still not win the league so you just don’t know how big these games are going to be.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on the players, they don’t need to be told how big these next few weeks might be. That’s when the nerves can start kicking in so we’ll just approach these games as we do with any other match.

“We really are in a great position going into the Christmas break. I always maintain to the boys that it’s one game at a time. Yes I wish we’d won all eight so far so we’re always disappointed when we drop points.

“Speaking to both managers (Leith’s Derek Riddel and Lothian’s Raymond Carr) in pre-season I think they were aware there were going to be other teams involved in the title race this year.

“Whether they included us in that bracket I’m not too sure. We just need to keep up our form of late and carry that into the second half of the season.”

On last weekend’s display, Vinter added: “We fell below our usual standards in the first half so I think it being 2-2 at half-time was probably right. But I thought we were magnificent after the break on what was another really challenging surface and worthy winners in the end.

“You never like conceding three goals so we’ll go through a few things at training tonight.”

Elsewhere, Ormiston were beaten 1-0 at Eyemouth United.