Edinburgh City v Forfar Athletic – match preview

The ‘Loons’ head for Edinburgh on Saturday sitting in third place in the cinch league2 table, but with a play-off place guaranteed following last weekend’s excellent 2-0 win down at Stranraer.

Forfar left it late to pick up the three points at Stair Park but following on a disappointing home draw with Cowdenbeath, it was a result which will certainly have been a big confidence booster for the Station Park squad.

Although Craig Slater and Stefan McCluskey scored the goals that sealed Stranraer’s fate on the day, all the players who donned the white change kit at Stair Park as ever gave one hundred per cent effort and tried to play football as best they could on an unforgiving end of season playing surface.

The Athies procured the points in Wigtownshire without six of their first team squad through injury and illness and it is hoped that one or two of the absentees might return to ‘active service’ at Ainslie Park.

Manager Gary Irvine has emphasised his desire shared by all of a sky blue persuasion to clinch second place in the league table come April 30^th and that means closing a four point gap over the current incumbents of the runners-up spot Annan Athletic.

The fact that the Galabank outfit are the visitors to Station Park on Saturday week makes a victory this coming Saturday all the more vital to the cause.

Edinburgh City to many in the game’s surprise dispensed with the services of manager Gary Naysmith a few weeks back, former Irish internationalist defender Alan Maybury who numbered Hearts as one of his former employers stepping into the breach as interim first team head coach.

On Friday night of last week, a second-half penalty from Ryan Shanley who had a short spell on Forfar’s books in 2020 on loan from Hibernian saw a point gained in a 1-1 home draw with Kelty.

The previous weekend City had gone down 2-0 up at Elgin, former ‘Loons’ skipper Michael Travis and Callum Crane seeing red, but both will return to the squad this weekend having served their one-match bans.

The ‘Citizens’ will go into the game their penultimate scheduled league game at their adopted home this season sitting three points ahead of fifth-placed Stenhousemuir, but ten points adrift of the Athies.

Therefore if Ross and his colleagues avoid defeat in the Capital City, they will guarantee a place in the 2^nd v 3^rd play-off semi-final in early May.

Certainly, a repeat of their pre-Christmas performance in Edinburgh when they recorded a 4-0 victory on a freezing cold Friday evening, albeit against an understrength home side would be just ‘dandy.’

That Friday night, Forfar’s goals came courtesy of Andy Munro, Stefan McCluskey, Steven Anderson and Matty Aitken.

To be fair to City they bounced back and picked up the three points when they visited Station Park six weeks later, the final scoreline that evening 3-2 in the visitors' favour.

Not surprisingly only a handful of the Forfar faithful made it to Stair Park last Saturday, but hopefully, the away support will be substantially increased for the Capital City joust.

The kick-off is at 3 p.m. and admission prices are £14 for adults, £9 for concessions.   Under 12’s are admitted free to Ainslie Park if accompanied by a paying adult.

Greg Soutar will be the man in the middle at a ‘Loons’ competitive fixture for the first time.