Friday 13th March 2026 ko 19:30

East of Scotland League Premier Division

HUTCHISON VALE 3 (Forster 17 57 Wilson-Need 57)

WHITBURN JUNIOR 2 (Nicolson 66 75)

Att 246

Entry £8

Programme £2

In groundhopping terms at least, a trip to Edinburgh’s Saughton Enclosure was long overdue. We’d planned on visiting as the 4th game on the Saturday of the Scottish Hop back in 2018. That was the year of the cold snap- it was bad enough at the Oriam Indoors, so losing the game at the then titled Lothian Thistle Hutchinson Vale was not necessarily bad news!!

I’d argue Hutchinson Vale are one of the most important Scottish football clubs few have heard of. That is due to the club being something of a nursery club with no end of players such as Mark Burchill,  Darren Fletcher, Kenny Miller and Derek Riordan having Vale on their CV’s. Formed in 1940 they are named after Hutchison Road close to Saughton Enclosure where our game was to take place, in the environs of Murrayfield, we passed by the home of Scottish rugby before parking in the enclosure’s more modest surroundings!

As a youth club Hutchie won the Scottish Youth Cup 69 times but club wanted a place in adult football, so in 2011 merged with Lothian Thistle to form the rather awkward sounding Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale. The reasoning was simple, Thistle were a one-band band- Tom Allison but had a spot in the East of Scotland League. The arrangement lasted until 2023 when Allison died and the Lothian Thistle name went with him.

The lead up to this hop did see some comment as to why we were heading here. The thrust of people’s opinions was that Saughton Enclosure is a poor facility, I even saw one comment that it was in the 10 worst grounds in Scotland! Apart from the obvious- why not visit, and the those oh-so handy floodlights, our agreement with the league is that we visit each club in their own ground that wants us. Moreeover the more I looked into Hutchinson Vale the more I wanted them to be able to tell their own story, if nothing else just look at the list of ex-players on their website! And the programme, my regular reader knows it’s not the be-all for me, but Hutchie’s magazine is superlative.

And while I’d agree that Saughton Enclosure isn’t my idea of the ideal football ground, I enjoyed our visit, the club hosted well, and I’ve been to far worse grounds. Perhaps it didn’t help that Vale had struggled this season and noone expected anything other than a Whitburn win. It was lovely to catch up with their people in hospitality at half time, and I did wince slightly as a committee member who couldn’t make the game phoned, and it’s fair to see he wasn’t happy at the score!

On another day I’m sure Whitburn could have won, they just took far too long to get going, and although the last few minutes looked nervous I couldn’t begrudge Hutchie Vale their win. It added up to a far more enjoyable evening than I’d expected even if with the benefit of hindsight- they did finish bottom and were relegated. I hope they enjoyed us all being there, and will look forward to a blether next time we see them.