13th January 2018 Edinburgh City v Montrose 0-2

With the SPL still on mid-winter break and Hearts off to a training camp in Valencia I decided to head to watch Edinburgh City rather than go to Civil Service Strollers or Edinburgh University. City had now risen to eighth in League 2 following their victory over Cowdenbeath last week although they faced a tough task against league leaders Montrose who had already beaten them twice this season.

As usual I walked to Ainslie Park and arrived about 14.40. As I stood at the fence drinking my coffee I met Alex. He had been intending to go to Inverness to watch his team Queen of the South against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. However when he was heading to station to catch his early train he felt unwell and returned home to bed. On getting up around mid-day he felt a bit better and decided to head for Ainslie Park. Unusually the game was refereed by a woman, Lorraine Watson. She had refereed some League 2 matches before but this was the first time I had seen a woman referee a professional game.

City started the game well and Scott Shepherd hit the bar with a header. Ashley Grimes then had a shot saved by Montrose keeper Allan Fleming after 15 minutes. Shortly thereafter a corner taken by Grimes came back to him on the left hand side of the penalty box. His shot was well saved by Fleming tipping it over the bar. Grimes seemed to be the main goal threat and he had a further shot from the centre of the penalty box saved again by Fleming.Things began to go wrong for City after 35 minutes when Montrose's first corner fell to the feet of their centre-half Michael Bolochoweckyj about eight yards out and he fired the ball into the City net with Montrose's first shot on target. Minutes later Andrew Steeves burst into the box, after what I thought was a foul on Shaun Harrison, and squared the ball for Lewis Milne to score a second for Montrose. Farid El Alagui was booked for his protests to the referee which was to have consequences later in the game. Minutes from the interval Liam Henderson blocked the ball in a challenge with Lewis Milne in the penalty area. Milne fell to the ground and the referee awarded a penalty although I failed to see any foul in the incident. Justice was done when Calum Antell made a fine save from Paul Watson's kick, palming the ball past the post.

The second half began with Montrose on the attack although Antell had little to do. City were coming back into the game and had a good chance when a mix-up between Sean Dillon and keeper Fleming allowed El Alagui a sight of goal. Dillon redeemed himself with a last gasp tackle to take the ball away from the strikers foot. Then mid-way through the second half Farid  blocked an attempted clearance by Allan Fleming in the Montrose goal. As the ball ran towards goal the referee blew for a free kick and gave El Alagui a second yellow card and then a red. I can only assume the referee gave a foul for dangerous play but as the clearance hit El Alagui on the body I fail to see how this could be classed as a foul. The game then petered out as play was mainly in midfield with neither keeper being called into serious action.The game finished as a win for Montrose but City remained in eighth place in the league as both Clyde and Cowdenbeath lost. Interestingly of the fourteen players used by City only Shaun Harrison remained from the Lowland League side of 2015/16.

Walked up to Ferry Road and caught a 27 home, arriving in time to watch Spurs demolish Everton on BT Sports.

Teams

Edinburgh City: Antell, Hall, Harrison, Scullion, Tena, Henderson, Walker, Laird, Grimes, El Alagui, Shepherd.

Subs: Blues, Donnelly-Kay,Thomson

Montrose

Fleming, Dillon, Bolochoweckj, Allan, McLaren, Redman, Milne, Watson, Steeves, Johnston, Templeman.

Subs: Callaghan, Masson, Fraser