A 2-0 away Premier Division win against Hutchison Vale gave Haddington Athletic a belated but very positive start to 2026 on the club’s first visit to Saughton Enclosure since 2019. It was the ideal way to put the disappointment of derby defeat against Dunbar United on 27 December behind us.
Our three previous Premier Division contests away from home against our capital hosts had been played at Ainslie Park, 1-0 wins the outcome each time – Niall Kemp, Joe Tait and Ross King each respectively securing three points our way. Saturday’s game was our first at Saughton since a 2-1 defeat on 12 October 2019 – our only previous visit.
It has been a bit of a torrid campaign so far for our opponents, rooted as they are to the foot of the league table – they’re recently under new management, however, and on not the best of playing surfaces weren’t to be taken at all lightly; they’d a couple of familiar ex-Hi Hi’s faces in their starting eleven in the form of our former skipper Mikey Fairnie, now 37 and wearing our hosts’ armband, and 20-year-oldold striker Riley Haston who scored almost a century of goals for our Under 20s.
It’d be a stretch to say the contest was memorable – the bottom line, however ,is the outcome was as we wished, and verxly deservedly so; after a closely contested goalless first half with few incidents of note we had by far the bulk of second half possession. The breakthrough eventually came 12 minutes from time, when Grant Rose done very well in possession on the right of the penalty area eighteen yards out – Grant shrugged off close defensive attention before sending in a shot which hit the inside of the near post before crossing the line. It wasn’t at all unjust on our stubborn opponents that a second goal materialised on 85 minutes – Ryan Cameron from the right of the penalty area delivered a ball inviting fellow sub Ciaran Nisbet to fire home a clinical back post strike towards the roof of the net.
As on our last visit to the capital four weeks ago, when we faced Leith Athletic in the South Challenge Cup, the outcome achieved was as we’d wished for – victory and a clean sheet. Let’s hope for a great deal more of the same across 2026!
