Edinburgh City hoping to avoid their shoot-out '˜nemesis'

Tomorrow's South Challenge Cup quarter-final tie between Edinburgh City and East Kilbride is the second time the sides have faced each other in knock-out competition this year, and City boss Gary Jardine is hoping to avoid their penalty shoot-out 'nemesis'.

Edinburgh City manager Gary Jardine

Kilby eliminated the Lowland League champions at the same stage of the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup and Jardine expects another close match.

“To be fair, we’ve scored a few penalties since then, but they’ve been our nemesis for the last year,” he explained. “We’ve lost five shoot-outs but, first and foremost, every game we’ve played against East Kilbride has been tight and we’ve got them back-to-back in the cup and the league. I’ve no doubt both will just as close as the ones that have gone before them. Our motivation is that we’ve not won this trophy. We’ve won the League Cup, the King Cup and the league in the last four years, but we’ve been knocked out in the semi-final a couple of times in the South Cup. It’s the biggest cup at our level and one we want to win.”

Jardine also revealed that Sean Muhsin will be unavailable due to work commitments while tomorrow comes a bit too early for Joe Mbu’s return from injury.

Elsewhere, Whitehill host Ormiston at Ferguson Park in the same competition. Should they overcome their East of Scotland League opponents, Welfare will face Glasgow University in the quarter-final.