Haddington’s third last game of season 2014/15 took them west to face Stoneyburn Juniors, who had won narrowly at Tranent the previous week, somewhat fortunately.

Johnny Harvey’s Hi Hi were seeking a fourth consecutive win following their Rosyth trauma a month earlier, and had promotion very much in their sights – only Falkirk Juniors and Rosyth could overtake them, and with both rivals having games they were expected to win, there was no expectation anything would be decided on the day.

Harvey made one change to the Haddington starting XI, Mark Smith starting on the right of midfield in place of Bob Berry, who’d flown on Monday to New Zealand. Andrew Sinclair remained sidelined with a knee injury.

On a fine spring afternoon at Stoneyburn’s Beechwood Park, Haddington took a firm grip of the game from the outset and over the course of the first half limited their opponents to only occasional forays towards Derek Polowyj’s goal. They exerted no little pressure on the home goal inside the opening 10 minutes but Stoneyburn keeper Holliday and his defenders blocked all scoring attempts in dogged fashion – they finally had to admit defeat in the 14th minute, though.

A Michael Noble corner from the left caused Holliday problems before Smith quickly set up Arran Ponton for a header at the back post – a defender in trying to clear off the line kicked the ball against the inside of the post, causing it to rebound along the line and off another defender before Joe Murray pounced to slam it into the back of the net. This was the 26th goal of the season for the Hi Hi’s top scorer, from the same number of competitive outings.

Three minutes later, Murray turned provider, outmuscling Stoneyburn’s right-back to get to the left byeline before playing the ball towards the near post, where Michael Fairnie turned and fired home his first Haddington goal from close range, despite close attention from home defenders.

Continuing to dominate, the Hi Hi made it 3-0 on 28 minutes when Noble’s intelligent ball forward fell into the path of Scott Wright, who jinked past two Stoneyburn defenders with ease before firing home a great right-footed effort from a moderately tight angle.

Stoneyburn’s best effort came shortly after this when a corner from the right was headed narrowly over the bar, but for the most part Haddington keeper Polowyj had next to nothing to do.

Up 3-0 at half-time, it was hard to envisage the Hi Hi capitulating against opposition who, though spirited, appeared somewhat limited.

Expectations that Haddington would go on to add a few more goals proved misplaced, as for some reason they never really got going after the break – though still comfortable, they allowed Stoneyburn much more of the game than they’d enjoyed in the first half. There were chances from time to time, with Fairnie for one unlucky on a couple of occasions, Murray likewise, but their earlier fluency appeared to have deserted them.

The hosts found clear-cut chances hard to come by and Polowyj wasn’t unduly busy in the Haddington goal, though he was forced into a one-handed save diving to his left late on.

Stoneyburn midfielder Kellock was stupidly sent off three minutes from time after earning a second booking for dissent and shortly afterwards, Haddington rounded off a satisfying afternoon’s work with a fourth goal courtesy of Murray, who showed great intelligence deep inside the box after James McPartlin slipped the ball into his path – checking with his left foot on the right of the six-yard box before firing home powerfully with his right.

Though it was known soon after full time that Falkirk Juniors had as expected defeated Crossgates Primrose, the news from Rosyth was late in coming through – the Hi Hi’s travelling party were drifting away from Stoneyburn’s Ewington Hotel when it emerged that West Calder United had held the Fifers to a 1-1 draw and, as a consequence, Haddington were promoted.

Their intention is to secure the South Division title at Millfield on Saturday when Pumpherston Juniors are their visitors – Pumpherston, however, enjoyed a good derby win on Saturday against Livingston United and will be eager to spoil the party.