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Hot-shot Kane Hester off and running for Elgin City as he targets 20 goals this season

Elgin City striker Kane Hester, right, celebrates his goal against Dundee United with Connor O'Keefe.
Elgin City striker Kane Hester, right, celebrates his goal against Dundee United with Connor O'Keefe.

Kane Hester is focused fully on netting 20 goals for Elgin City this season to help spearhead a promotion charge from League Two.

The 25-year-old hit a superb opener for City in their midweek 6-1 Premier Sports Cup defeat at Premiership Dundee United. He’s off and running with a goal and hopes it’s a case of third time lucky after twice being just one shy of his target.

Kane Hester slots away the opener against Dundee United on Wednesday.

Last season, the forward’s goals certainly helped Elgin reach third spot and the promotion play-offs before Edinburgh City edged past them in the semi-finals, and he said: “I want to emulate what I achieved before.

“I’ve got 19 goals in each of the two seasons, so third time lucky – I’m going for 20 and hopefully that will help us to have another successful season.”

Nairn first and then an early shot at Kelty Hearts

The Black and Whites face Highland League team Nairn County on Saturday in a Borough Briggs bounce game before returning to Premier Sports Cup action against newly-promoted Kelty Hearts on Tuesday.

Elgin City’s Darryl McHardy (right) competes with Dundee United’s Peter Pawlett.

The Lowland League champions came up via the play-offs by defeating Brora Rangers and Brechin City, and are heavily fancied to storm into League One.

Although the game next week is a cup-tie, Hester is eager to lay down an early marker.

He stressed: “Kelty are title rivals, I would say. This will be a big test for us.

“These cup matches don’t mean quite as much as the league, but we’ll certainly be fired up for that one.”

Hester, the top scorer in League Two last term, tormented Dundee United early on, with a wonderful overhead kick smashing off the bar just two minutes before his ice-cool deadly finish.

The striker insists he was not going to miss that opportunity after rattling the bar.

He said: “You dream of chances like the one off the bar going in, but then, a couple of minutes later, I slotted an easier one in.

“It was a really good start and we probably dominated the game over the first 20 minutes.

“We enjoyed passages of play and got a lot of the ball. We got in behind them and troubled them.

“Ideally, we’d have taken it by the scruff of the neck and used that, but losing the goal led to us losing our confidence and they got their tails up from that point.

“If we had got a second goal then the crowd would have started getting on their backs, but they played really well after scoring.”

Taught a harsh lesson on Tayside

Hester, who was backed by team-mates Rory MacEwan and Darryl McHardy in the build-up to his goal, feels the Elgin squad can take positives from what was dished out to them by United.

Dundee United’s Lawrence Shankland scores an equaliser to make it 1-1 against Elgin City.

He explained: “Despite the scoreline, it was a good workout for the boys. We tried to put up a strong defensive display, but were taught quite a lesson in the end.

“We will take it and move on. We have the game on Saturday where some of the boys, who maybe haven’t played much, will get some game time.”

Elgin’s heavy defeat on Tayside means they are without a cup point, having lost 1-0 to Arbroath last weekend.

After taking on Kelty on Tuesday, they round off Group B on July 24 with a trip to East Fife.

City will then kick off League Two against Stranraer one week later.