Thornton Hibs: Boss Craig Gilbert explains league venue switch after cup tie win

Thornton boss Craig Gilbert said: “It wasn’t too comfortable because they’re a half decent side and they had two or three chances.

"At 1-0, their guy was clean through on our goalie so it could easily have been 1-1. Coldstream is a hard place to go.

"It’s a nice park, a 10-minute walk and you're in England.

"After that we could have scored more right enough. They dug in during the second half and tried to make things happen, but after the second goal it was kind of all over.”

Hibs now face a home tie against Hutchison Vale in the next round on Saturday, October 26.

"We have every chance in that tie,” Gilbert said. “It’s 11 boys against 11.

"We have not too bad a pedigree in cup competitions.”

Thornton are back in East of Scotland Football League first division this Saturday, when they host Edinburgh South in a 2.30pm kick-off.

Gilbert’s men go into the match sitting seventh in the table with 11 points from eight games, having won 1-0 at home to Kinnoull in their last league outing on September 21.

"We have had a lot of injuries,” the gaffer added. “We’ve got Garry Thomson, Stuart Drummond and Nathan Laird – all first team players – injured.

"They are big players that make us tick. So it’s very, very difficult to replace them.

"We had lost three games on the bounce 4-0 and we hadn’t scored in four games.

"So to get the result against Kinnoull was great. And then we got another clean sheet on Saturday and scored a couple of goals.

"We’ve now got five games in a row on the bounce between now and November 2.

"Fingers crossed that can be a springboard for us.

"The game against Edinburgh South this Saturday was meant to be away.

"But there is an athletics meeting this Saturday at Saughton – where they play – so they have asked our fixture to be reversed.

"We obviously obliged because we don’t want any games to be off.”