In a back-and-forth one-goal affair, Edinburgh City were able to progress through to the third round of the Scottish Cup after a contest against Lowland League side University of Stirling. First-half substitute, Innes Lawson, was the only one to get a goal, despite multiple promising efforts from both sides. City will find out their next opponents in the cup on Sunday evening, with hopes of advancing even further. Shaun McGeachan reports from Meadowbank Stadium.
The teams faced an extra opponent this game: the weather. However, supporters for both sides persevered through the cold wind, resulting in almost full attendance in the seated section. This was an important game for both teams’ mindsets; it gave the University of Stirling a chance to beat a bigger side and show their worth in the competition, and it gave Edinburgh City a chance to regain their confidence after a disappointing defeat to Stranraer last weekend. The game kicked off with both sides rearing to go.
First Half
City began the game with a clear aim to take control of possession and would use this to counterattack, but they could not seem to get the ball into the box for a while, partly due to the commendable work of Stirling’s fullbacks. Eventually, City managed to get their first shot of the game, courtesy of Bradley Barret, who shot just to the right of University of Stirling keeper, Alex Sutherland, but a lack of power meant an easy save.
University of Stirling lost the ball in the middle of the park once again, around a third of the way into the first half, allowing Quinn Mitchell to overlap on the left side, but yet another lacklustre finish meant that the ball rolled past the goal and was cleared to safety by Stirling.
Soon after, Edinburgh City’s Jack Duncan was involved in a clash which gave him a head injury. After nearly five minutes on the ground, Duncan was able to walk off the pitch, with Innes Lawson taking his place.
Stirling continued to keep City out of key attacking positions for a while with the defence playing well together, but their long-ball approach was not working so far in the game, meaning they needed to change something to have a better chance of scoring. City were finding it very easy to win the ball back from Stirling’s long balls, which was a credit to the performance of centre-backs Jake Service and Lewis McArthur.
For a while neither team looked like they would score before halftime, with the closest attempt being a solid City free kick into the box from Coulson, however no one was there to connect.
Stirling’s best chance of the first half came from a free kick into the box, which Vonk was able to get his head on, but Mark Weir was able to gather the ball up.
Despite this, super-sub Lawson got City in front by sliding the ball past Sutherland into the bottom right corner, making Stirling realise they needed to try something different.
Edinburgh City were able to get through once again through a throw-in from their own half, allowing Robbie Mahon to get through, but Sutherland made himself too big for the ball to go by him this time.
Finlay Moffet gave the University of Stirling another good chance with a ball in the box, which Weir was just able to knock over the crossbar.
As a result of becoming much more lively since conceding, Euan Walker tried an effort from outside the box, but his attempt went wide.
Not long after this, the half-time whistle was blown, with the University of Stirling a goal down to a much more confident Edinburgh City.
Second Half
As soon as things started going again, it was clear University of Stirling were set on trying to play a more possession-based half in order to get the chances that they were missing out on in the first. They were able to get the first proper attempt of the game following a corner in the box from Alex Jearnes which, after some bobbling of the ball, landed at the feet of Walker, who struck the ball yet Weir was able to save for another corner.
Edinburgh City’s first good attempt of the half came from a misplaced Stirling goal kick, which Lawson was able to win and then played to James Stokes, who gave the ball back to the first scorer, but this time he couldn’t be so clinical.
City, who were clearly looking to put this game to bed by getting another goal in front, had another good opportunity soon after with another corner which this time reached the head of McArthur, but another good save from Sutherland meant they would be kept to only one goal in front.
After a while of many careless mistakes from both teams as the game went on, it was City again who had the next decent chance from a link-up of Stokes to Mahon, who couldn’t get a threatening shot off and the rebound from Lawson was put out for a corner. This corner also got the hopes of the City faithful up as a Stirling clearance put it just inches over the bar.
After just being subbed on for Stirling, Nathan Tallen was able to provide them with a small glimmer of hope, but similarly to a City chance in the first half, his shot rolled past the goal.
University of Stirling made a real energetic push in the last few minutes of the game to get an equaliser, but Edinburgh City’s tight defence allowed them to get the job done. This allowed City to advance in their hopes of a competitive Scottish Cup run, whereas the University of Stirling have to dwell on a relatively solid performance against a side from a higher division.
