22nd February 2020 Edinburgh City v Brechin City 0-0
Another miserable day weather wise. I had intended to go to Paisley last night to watch Hearts play St. Mirren but the game was called off after a 15.30 inspection due to a waterlogged pitch. I was thinking of going to watch Penicuik today but a waterlogged pitch put paid to that and all other matches on grass pitches in the lower leagues in the east of Scotland. I therefore decided to go and watch Edinburgh City on the artificial surface at Ainslie Park. There had been a few heavy showers today and I waited until one had finished before leaving home after lunch at 13.30. Walk to the ground was fine until another shower started as I was walking down Orchard Brae. Really strong winds and sleety rain forced me to take cover in a bus shelter until worst of shower passed. I then continued my walk and arrived at ground just after 14.30. Paid my £12 entry and £3 for a programme before heading to snack bar to get a coffee. I met Jim and we decided to take seats at the back of the stand. To avoid the noise from the young team we headed to to far end of the stand and sat amongst the few Brechin fans. Surprisingly the young team were either not there today or had not brought their musical accompaniment as there was no wall of sound.
City are still second in League Two, six points behind leaders Cove Rangers after their 2-1 defeat at Cove last week. City have probably the strongest squad in their four years in the SPFLand made a few changes today. It was surprising to see attacking first choices in Blair Henderson and Alex Harris on the bench. Brechin are struggling at the bottom of the table, eight points behind Albion Rovers and look almost certain to be involved in an end of season play-off to retain their place in the SPFL. Manager Mark Wilson is trying to rebuild his squad after two successive relegations but as yet has been unable to improve the sides fortunes. City included Hearts loanee Alex Petkov in central defence, his first game for the club following his recent loam move till the end of this season.
Just before kick-off there was an announcement over the tannoy that fans should retain tickets issued at the gate as they would be required for entry if the referee abandoned the game. As the wind as howling in from the south-west across the goal Edinburgh City were attacking this seemed a wise precaution. The game started well and Brechin had an early chance from a corner when the ball broke to Petkov about twelve yards from goal but his attempted shot was blocked. The ball was fired up towards on loan winger, from Celtic, Grant Savoury who ran towards goal from his own half. He outpaced the covering Scott Reekie but his shot from the edge on the box was blocked at the expense of a corner by the feet of keeper Lewis McMinn. Brechin then had a chance when Edinburgh's Conrad Balatoni misjudged the flight of a long clearance. The ball skidded of the top of his head towards Paul McManus but his first touch as poor and the ball ran towards Kelby Mason just inside the penalty area who gathered the ball safely. Edinburgh continued to have most of the pressure but playing into the wind were unable to make any clear chances. The strength of the wind was shown when Brechin keeper McMinn took three attempts to take a free-kick for offside in the middle of the Brechin half as the ball had rolled before he could make contact on the first two occasions.The only time either keeper was called into action was five minutes from halftime. Brechin's Martin Scott tried a shot from about fifteen yards on the right hand side inside the penalty box which was comfortably saved by Mason.
At halftime we heard that the match at Arbroath had been abandoned due to high winds but we had no such luck at Ainslie Park. The second half again had City having most of the ball but with the wind now swirling over the park both sides were having difficulty in creating chances. Just before the hour mark Edinburgh brought on B. Henderson and Harris to replace Johnathan Court and Jordan Sinclair. Henderson's first involvement was to concede a foul on the halfway line which lead to a minor flare-up between players on both sides. The referee sensibly broke up the fracas without taking any disciplinary action in what was a case of 'handbags' rather than violent conduct. Craig Thomson had a shot on goal minutes after this from about twenty two yards which was held easily by McMinn in the centre of his goal area. With about ten minutes to go Danny Handling hit a direct free-kick from about twenty yards high over the bar which probably summed up the game. Brechin were holding out well although McMinn and substitute Ollie Hamilton were both booked for time-wasting. Edinburgh were lucky as the game moved into injury time when Mason appeared to carry the ball out of his penalty area as he collected a through pass. From his clearance Edinburgh broke down the left but Graeme Holmes shot past the far post from Harris' low cross.
After the game I walked up to Ferry Road to get a 27 bus home but found I had just missed one. Rather than wait another fifteen minutes for the next bus I walked along to Crewe Toll and caught a 38 to Balgreen where I switched to a 22 and got home about 17.35 after a disappointing day at what I thought could have been a good game which was spoiled by the weather conditions.
Teams
Edinburgh City: Mason, Thomson, Crane, L. Henderson, Balatoni, Laird, Savoury, Sinclair, Court, Handling, Shepherd.
Subs: Harris, B. Henderson, Holmes.
City are still second in League Two, six points behind leaders Cove Rangers after their 2-1 defeat at Cove last week. City have probably the strongest squad in their four years in the SPFLand made a few changes today. It was surprising to see attacking first choices in Blair Henderson and Alex Harris on the bench. Brechin are struggling at the bottom of the table, eight points behind Albion Rovers and look almost certain to be involved in an end of season play-off to retain their place in the SPFL. Manager Mark Wilson is trying to rebuild his squad after two successive relegations but as yet has been unable to improve the sides fortunes. City included Hearts loanee Alex Petkov in central defence, his first game for the club following his recent loam move till the end of this season.
Just before kick-off there was an announcement over the tannoy that fans should retain tickets issued at the gate as they would be required for entry if the referee abandoned the game. As the wind as howling in from the south-west across the goal Edinburgh City were attacking this seemed a wise precaution. The game started well and Brechin had an early chance from a corner when the ball broke to Petkov about twelve yards from goal but his attempted shot was blocked. The ball was fired up towards on loan winger, from Celtic, Grant Savoury who ran towards goal from his own half. He outpaced the covering Scott Reekie but his shot from the edge on the box was blocked at the expense of a corner by the feet of keeper Lewis McMinn. Brechin then had a chance when Edinburgh's Conrad Balatoni misjudged the flight of a long clearance. The ball skidded of the top of his head towards Paul McManus but his first touch as poor and the ball ran towards Kelby Mason just inside the penalty area who gathered the ball safely. Edinburgh continued to have most of the pressure but playing into the wind were unable to make any clear chances. The strength of the wind was shown when Brechin keeper McMinn took three attempts to take a free-kick for offside in the middle of the Brechin half as the ball had rolled before he could make contact on the first two occasions.The only time either keeper was called into action was five minutes from halftime. Brechin's Martin Scott tried a shot from about fifteen yards on the right hand side inside the penalty box which was comfortably saved by Mason.
At halftime we heard that the match at Arbroath had been abandoned due to high winds but we had no such luck at Ainslie Park. The second half again had City having most of the ball but with the wind now swirling over the park both sides were having difficulty in creating chances. Just before the hour mark Edinburgh brought on B. Henderson and Harris to replace Johnathan Court and Jordan Sinclair. Henderson's first involvement was to concede a foul on the halfway line which lead to a minor flare-up between players on both sides. The referee sensibly broke up the fracas without taking any disciplinary action in what was a case of 'handbags' rather than violent conduct. Craig Thomson had a shot on goal minutes after this from about twenty two yards which was held easily by McMinn in the centre of his goal area. With about ten minutes to go Danny Handling hit a direct free-kick from about twenty yards high over the bar which probably summed up the game. Brechin were holding out well although McMinn and substitute Ollie Hamilton were both booked for time-wasting. Edinburgh were lucky as the game moved into injury time when Mason appeared to carry the ball out of his penalty area as he collected a through pass. From his clearance Edinburgh broke down the left but Graeme Holmes shot past the far post from Harris' low cross.
After the game I walked up to Ferry Road to get a 27 bus home but found I had just missed one. Rather than wait another fifteen minutes for the next bus I walked along to Crewe Toll and caught a 38 to Balgreen where I switched to a 22 and got home about 17.35 after a disappointing day at what I thought could have been a good game which was spoiled by the weather conditions.
Teams
Edinburgh City: Mason, Thomson, Crane, L. Henderson, Balatoni, Laird, Savoury, Sinclair, Court, Handling, Shepherd.
Subs: Harris, B. Henderson, Holmes.
Brechin City: McMinn, Reekie, McIntosh, Petkov, Hill, Page, Allan, McCabe, McManus, Scott, Inglis.
Subs: Hamilton, Ducanson.
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