Haddington are climbing Hi but are not quite yet the finished article

The Hi-Hi grabbed a 94th-minute winner to pull off a shock at Lugar Boswell Thistle last weekend and are now hoping to land a plum tie in the next round.

"It is magnificent for the club and it was great to see the look of joy on the faces of our committee last Saturday night as they all work so hard and deserve a bit of success," said McLeish.

He took over the reins last March and has used a strong coaching background - he worked full-time at Hibs for 18 months when Mixu Paatelianen was the manager - to help turn the club's fortunes around.

"The club wasn't exactly in the best of health when I first came here, we were lying second bottom in the South Division," he added. "We had a big turnaround in players last summer, with nine leaving and nine coming in, most of them being under-21s.

"It is still work in progress - we've had some hiccups along the way, but I believe we are on the verge of being a good team.

"The problem will be keeping it together because if teams didn't already know about some of these young lads, I'm sure they will now."

Others like Michael Motion and Jackie Myles are also playing their part and McLeish admitted: "This is definitely the best environment I've worked in part-time wise in football."

Tomorrow Haddington make the short journey along the A1 to take on Dunbar in a league match. "Dunbar lost 8-0 to Tranent recently but that was a one-off as they are normally well organised," added McLeish.

In other South Division games tomorrow, Edinburgh United entertain Blackburn, Dalkeith are at Pumpherston, Spartans take on Fauldhouse and Tranent travel to West Calder.