Staff from the Edinburgh Evening News have been crowned football kings of Scotland’s media after winning a tournament at Glasgow’s Hampden Park.

The paper’s team (pictured) beat Sky 2-0 in the final of the fifth annual BT Scotland Hampden Press Challenge.

Twenty teams took part in the charity event that included other regional press entries from the Evening Times, The Herald and Sunday Herald in Glasgow, and Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, Sunday Post, Scottish & Universal Newspapers, Johnston Press and some independent titles.

The Evening News team, captained by deputy business editor Jim Stanton – who is a nephew of former Scotland, Hibernian and Celtic legend Pat Stanton – made up for its final loss to the Sun in 2001 when it was defeated 1-0.

After coming through the so-called ‘group of death’ with one win and two draws, the Evening News defeated Scottish & Universal Newspapers 4-2 on penalties in the quarter-final.

Evening News goalkeeper Mark Potter was the hero as he saved a spot kick taken by former Hibernian striker Paul Wright, who was competing as S&UN’s guest player.

The Edinburgh team was then pitted against its sister title Scotland on Sunday in the semi-final and after a goalless draw, the Evening News scraped through to the final with a ‘golden goal’ in extra time.

After the 2-0 final win, captain Jim said: “We got better as the tournament went on. The final was a great game which we controlled throughout and deserved to win.

“It was very disappointing to lose the 2001 final. But as we went through the rounds this year our confidence grew as our performances improved and we knew after winning the quarter-final stage that we had a great chance of winning the tourney.”

The Evening News team was made up of David Cheyne, Jamie Dougal, Iain Kirkpatrick, Mark Potter, Craig Purvis, Graeme Renwick, James Robertson and Jim Stanton.

• Tournament sponsors BT Scotland agreed to donate £5 for every goal scored to Sport Relief. Between them the teams notched up 65 goals making the total raised £325.

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