Heineken Cup: Edinburgh and Glasgow no longer on slippery slope Hence the plummeting expectation levels as the Heineken Cup loomed. Yet on the tournament's first weekend, Edinburgh pulled off a sensational 20-19 over London Irish at the Madejski Stadium, while Glasgow beat Bath 26-21 at Firhill the following day. In truth, there were some significant dollops of good fortune in both results - and there have been a few more since - but they had both cleared the all-important first hurdle. And they have kept themselves in the race ever since. Edinburgh have been markedly better, winning four of their five matches so far, but it speaks volumes about the kind of campaign they have had that they top Pool Two with a points differential of minus five. Neither Scottish side has won a game by a margin of more than seven points. But the big difference between this season and years past is that they have been ending up on the right side of narrow results. Some perspective is still needed. Glasgow's European ambitions are now limited to the hope that they can clinch the final Amlin Cup place with a win at Bath on Saturday afternoon, and that neither Scarlets nor Northampton can whisk it way from them in their respective Pool One games against Munster and Castres. There is a complicating factor involving the possibility of a draw between Biarritz and Ospreys in Pool Five on Sunday, but Glasgow coach Sean Lineen will be watching Pool One most closely. For Edinburgh, though, things look far brighter. A win of any sort against London Irish at Murrayfield on Sunday would probably get them into the Heineken's last eight; a win with a bonus point could even mean a home quarter-final if Cardiff fail to take one - or even lose - against Racing Metro at the same time. As always, the permutations are mind-addling. Small wonder that Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley should focus on the first and most important task of making sure his side scores more points than their English opponents. This has been Bradley's first Heineken campaign, but having guided Connacht to the Amlin knockout stages on a number of occasions he understands the mindset required for European progress. Which is, in a nutshell, that you get yourself over the line by any means possible. In their first match against London Irish that meant a 68th-minute penalty and 12 minutes of stonewall defence. A week later, at home to Racing Metro, it was a 78th-minute try from Tim Visser and a soaring touchline conversion by Greig Laidlaw that won them the game, 48-47, after they had trailed by 20 points with as many minutes left. In last week's return match against Racing in Paris, Phil Godman dropped a goal for 27-24 win with the last kick of the match. Along the way, two themes have emerged from both Scottish camps. The first is that the players who failed with Scotland at the World Cup came back to their clubs fresh and determined to redeem themselves. The second is that the Scottish sides have unearthed a crop of young players as good as any seen in a generation. Confident, too. On that opening Heineken weekend, Edinburgh's first-choice goal-kicker was 19-year-old Harry Leonard, while Glasgow went with the 20-year-old Duncan Weir. Between them, the teams scored four tries, not one of them by a player more than 23 years old. There were also major changes behind the scenes at Murrayfield. For years, the Scottish Rugby Union viewed their professional clubs as little more than training camps for the Scotland team. The first public statement by Sir Moir Lockhead, the former First Group chief executive who took over as SRU chairman last year, was a promise that Glasgow and Edinburgh would be given the autonomy and resources they had previously lacked. On the cusp of Edinburgh's first Heineken quarter-final since 2004, Bradley remains cautious. "We don't have the consistency yet," he said flatly. But we're learning. There's pressure here that we're potentially not used to. But the key issue so far has been that we have been able to adapt in a match or learn from the previous match and go forward.