Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale Football Club (LTHV) are a senior non-league

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland. Currently competing in the , they play their home matches at Saughton Enclosure in the

Saughton Saughton () ( sco, Sauchtoun) ( gd, Baile nan Seileach) is a suburb of the west of Edinburgh, Scotland, bordering Broomhouse, Stenhouse, Longstone and Carrick Knowe. In Lowland Scots, a "sauch" is a willow. The Water of Leith flows by here. ...

area of the city.

History

Founded in 1969 as an amateur

works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

for Lloyds Finance, they initially played as Lloyds & Scottish prior to renaming themselves Lothian Thistle. The club originally competed in the Lothian amateur league before a successful spell in the

Caledonian Amateur Football League The Caledonian Amateur Football League is a football (soccer) league competition for amateur clubs in Scotland. It was formed in 1983 by inviting what were deemed to be top amateur clubs from across central Scotland with good facilities with hig ...

. They then moved up to senior status when they joined the

East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Fo ...

in 1995, gaining promotion to the Premier Division two years later in 1997. The club is linked with the youth football club Hutchison Vale, and changed their name to Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale before the start of the 2011–12 season to reflect this. LTHV won the East of Scotland Premier Division title for the first time in the 2013–14 season, repeating this success in the 2014–15 season. They were runners-up in 2015–16 and won the league for the third time in 2016–17, although they did not take part in the play-off for promotion to the

Lowland League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior association football, football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, actin ...

because they were ineligible for licensing reasons. They narrowly lost out on the 2017–18 title after defeat to

Kelty Hearts Kelty Hearts Football Club is a football club based in the village of Kelty in Fife, Scotland. Formed in 1975 and nicknamed ''the Hearts'', ''the Maroon Machine'' and ''the Jambos'', they play their home games at New Central Park. Their home ...

on the final day of the season. The club reached the 3rd round of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2017–18 beating League Two side

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in Scottish League Two as a member of the ...

5-3 away from home, before losing 1-7 at home to St Mirren. They became SFA members in 2018, allowing them automatic entry into the Scottish Cup. LTHV gained promotion back to the Premier Division for

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

after winning First Division Conference A in the curtailed 2019–20 season.

Ground

The club operates at Saughton Enclosure in the west side of

, where they have been since 1998. The ground can accommodate up to 1,000 spectators.

Youth

The Hutchison Vale youth team was founded in 1940. Its first intake of players included future professionals

Tommy Younger Thomas Younger (10 April 1930 – 13 January 1984) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Hibernian, Liverpool, Falkirk, Leeds United, Stoke City and the Scotland national team. Career Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Younger s ...

and George Farm. A full list of 'graduates' was released by the BBC in April 2019 - Grant Brebner, Lee Bullen, Mark Burchill, Gary Caldwell, Steven Caldwell, John Collins, Alan Combe, Peter Cormack, Darren Dods, Andrew Driver, George Farm, Alfred Finnbogason, Darren Fletcher, Ryan Flynn, Paul Hanlon, Kevin Harper, John Hughes, Danny Galbraith, Gary Glen, Leigh Griffiths, John Inglis, Danny Lennon, Gary Locke, Gary Mason, Eddie May, Allan McGregor, Steven McLean, Marc McNulty, Michael McIndoe, Kenny Miller, Grant Murray, Ian Murray, Gary Naysmith, Sam Nicholson, Colin Nish, Garry O'Connor, Allan Preston, Derek Riordan, Scott Robinson, Michael Stewart, Danny Swanson, Paul Telfer, Kevin Thomson, Gregor Townsend, Steven Tweed, Mickey Weir, Steven Whittaker, Danny Wilson, Tommy Younger In April 2019 it was described as "Scotland's most fruitful football academy".

Women

Hutchison Vale also have a women's section who play in SWPL 2, the second division of the

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football League ...

. In 2018 they merged with Edinburgh University Ladies and were renamed '' Edinburgh University Hutchison Vale'', playing their home games at the University's Peffermill Sports Ground,

. However this partnership ended at the end of the season, and they reverted to the Hutchison Vale name for 2019. Hutchison Vale Ladies won the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Fo ...

*Winners (3) : 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17 *''Runners-up (2)'' : 2015–16, 2017–18

First Division *Winners : 1996–97, 2019–20 (Conference A) East of Scotland City Cup * Winners: 2016–17 *''Runners-up'' : 2014–15 East of Scotland Qualifying Cup * Winners: 1996-97, 2014–15 *''Runners-up (2)'' : 2016–17, 2017–18 East of Scotland League Cup * Winners: 2017–18 King Cup * Winners: 2003–04 *''Runners-up (2)'' : 2015–16, 2016–17 Alex Jack Cup * Winners (5): 2000–01, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2016–17 *''Runners-up (6)'': 1995–96, 1997–98, 2002–03, 2010–11, 2013–14, 2016–17 South & East Cup Winners Shield * Winners: 2016–17

References

External links

* * {{coord, 55.933889, -3.254421, region:GB, display=title Association football clubs established in 1969 Football clubs in Scotland Football clubs in Edinburgh 1969 establishments in Scotland East of Scotland Football League teams Works association football teams in Scotland