After heady victories over Bonnyrigg Rose at Olive Bank and at Fauldhouse United in the fifth round of the Scottish Junior Cup, Musselburgh Athletic on Saturday turned their attention to a lower profile fixture when they played their East of Scotland Cup second-round tie at the third time of asking, Beechwood Park having twice previously been declared unplayable.

Stoneyburn occupy a lower mid-table spot in the South Division and, as such, Burgh were strong favourites, their stock having risen on the back of a great run of form from mid-October onwards during which they’d won nine games and lost just once.

Olive Bank boss Stevie McLeish made just one forced change to the XI who’d started at Fauldhouse, Jed Davie starting up front in place of the suspended Steven Thomson, red carded the previous week.

The Burgh players could be forgiven for finding motivation harder to come by for the prospect of a cold afternoon in Stoneyburn than had been the case in recent weeks, and perhaps unsurprisingly there was something of a lull in their performance level. That said, though, they were never under any real threat from a hard-working but limited Stoneyburn outfit, who went with just one striker up front from the outset and rarely posed Burgh keeper Ally Adams any real problems.

There was the distinct feeling this was a tie the visitors wanted to get through with the minimum of fuss and they went about their business in low-key fashion, some minds no doubt wandering back to the fevered atmosphere at nearby Fauldhouse seven days earlier.

It took Musselburgh almost until half-time to open the scoring, after top scorer Jordyn Sheerin was downed by the home keeper as he bore down on goal one on one.

The man with the gloves was fortunate to escape with a booking before Sheerin dusted himself down to claim his 26th goal of the season from the penalty spot.

Momentum proved hard to come by in the second half and, in comparison with some of their performances this season, Burgh were to some degree disjointed. Nonetheless, they were largely in control and there was never any sense that a cup upset might be on the cards.

There were only 10 minutes left when Lewis Turner netted their second goal to virtually seal their spot in the last 16, then shortly afterwards the same player had the ball in the net again but a dubious offside saw the goal chalked off.

In the 90th minute, Adams was beaten when Stoneyburn’s Gilhooley scored with a free-kick which deflected off the wall, but the final whistle wasn’t far away and so the visitors progressed as expected – the draw for the third round took place on Monday evening, when Burgh were paired with Newtongrange Star, again away.

It’s back to Superleague business on Saturday for the Olive Bank men, who host Sauchie Juniors in their 15th fixture. The Clackmannanshire men are one place behind Burgh in the table, sitting eighth with four points fewer, having played two games more.

Sauchie won 1-0 in the reverse fixture back in August and it’ll be tight again, but Burgh’s great home form should help as they look to try and widen the gap between the teams.