Elgin City’s first experience of Friday night football in the capital ended in disappointment with a 2-0 defeat at Edinburgh City.
Gavin Price’s men failed to recover from a horrendous start to their encounter with Edinburgh City who controlled proceedings after two early goals from Danny Handling proved sufficient to seal victory under the Ainslie Park lights.
Price bemoaned his side’s poor start to the game and indicated that it was an area where work was neeeded.
He said: “I hadn’t even reached the dugout and we were a goal down.
“You need to regroup and show the right mental attitude in these situtaions.
“We didn’t do that and found ourseleves two goals down after eight minutes.
“We did regroup and had a some good possession as well as creating a few chances but it was too late.
“You can’t give teams two goals of a start, especially when youre away from home.
“We havent started a game well all season and we need to get better at that.”
The home side enjoyed a dream start to the game when they took lead straight from the kick off.
On-loan Hibernian midfielder Innes Murray threaded the ball through to Handling who made no mistake from 15 yards out by firing past Elgin keeper Thomas McHale with just 18 seconds on the clock.
Worse was to follow for the shell-shocked Highlanders when they fell further behind seven minutes later.
Full Time ⚽@EdinburghCityFC 2-0 Elgin City
It ends in defeat in the Capital as Danny Handling's double gives Edinburgh the 3 points.
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 27, 2021
Murray was again the creator, this time taking advantage of some defensive uncertainty before rounding McHale and while his angular shot looked to be goalbound, Handling came thundering in to make sure, forcing the ball over the line from close range for his second of the evening.
Clearly stunned by this quickfire double strike, the visitors took time to regroup but began to play some attractive football as the first half progressed with talismanic striker Kane Hester almost pulling a goal back when he found himself with a clear run on goal before sending his shot in to the side netting.
Hester again came close after the Edinburgh defence had failed to clear a Tony Dingwall free kick and the Elgin frontman was shown a yellow card for dissent by referee Matthew MacDermid after he had gone to ground in the penalty area under the close attention of home defenders Stephen Bronsky and Ciaran Brian.
TEAM NEWS 👀⚽
Here is how we line up tonight for our @cinchuk League 2 clash with @EdinburghCityFC
Kick off is at 7.45pm
Come on City 🖤🤍 pic.twitter.com/I9RgvNouze— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 27, 2021
Elgin began the second half brightly but they had Creag Little to thank for keeping them in the game in the 58th minute, the defender blocking James Hilton’s shot on the goal line after the Edinburgh midfielder had shimmied past McHale.
The home side finished the game strongly and the impressive Hilton almost made it it 3-0 with a low shot which slipped narrowly wide 15 minutes before the end.