Eddlewood skipper Derek Innes was confident that his side would win

May 20 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

EDDLEWOOD captain Derek Innes told this team-mates to relish their Scottish Amateur Cup win at Hampden – because they might never get the chance again.

Defender Innes is no stranger to big occasions, but knows that some of his Eddlewood team-mates had never experienced a trophy triumph until Sunday’s 1-0 win over Drumchapel United at the national stadium.

Derek said: “I’ve been with Eddlewood for 10 years and everybody knows how much I love it, so to lift the cup in front of my family and friends meant everything.

“It means more to me because I’m from Eddlewood. I love where I’m from, I love the guys I play with and I bring them all in as one big family.

“Myself and a few others have won the cup before but I know that some of the guys have never had that feeling in their life.

“I’ve told them that in years to come they will be able to tell their kids that they’ve been to Hampden and won a final – there aren’t too many people who can say that.”

Innes says Eddlewood have never lost a cup final in their 10-year existence and was delighted with Sunday’s win – although he conceded they were under siege at times.

“We scored early and defended our lead, just like the last time,” he said.

“It was backs-to-the-wall stuff but we know we’ve got good defenders and we’ll defend a lead.

“Had we lost the first goal we would have been up against it but once we got it we felt we could win the game.

“Sometimes, the football isn’t fancy but it’s goals that count and that’s what we did.

“We always know that we can defend a lead and I think the team we’ve got just now is better than the one we had two years ago.”

Eddlewood’s triumph was made all the more remarkable for the fact that goalkeeper David Cormack recovered from broken fingers just two weeks before the final, while midfielder Alan Litster battled back from knee ligament damage.

But Innes said: “In the last three weeks we’ve had a few injuries to key players, like our goalkeeper and midfielder Alan Litster, so we’ve had physios working on them and we’ve brought guys in who aren’t usually in the team.

“It’s been hard; we got beat 7-6 recently and we’ve never lost seven goals in a game, so our confidence was down a wee bit.

“I told the players before the game that they will either be a hero or a loser – and we’re all heroes.

“We know that when it comes to big occasions we’ve never been defeated in a final, and that’s 13 now.”