Edinburgh City not flustered by Cove Rangers' five-point lead in League 2

Midfielder Laird knows there is a lot of football still to be played

Edinburgh City's Marc Laird, right, battles for the ball against Stenhousemuir. Pic: TSPL

Marc Laird insists Edinburgh City are unfazed by the fact title rivals Cove Rangers currently hold a five-point advantage at the top of Ladbrokes League Two.

The Capital side’s draw at home to Elgin City last weekend, coupled with the Aberdeenshire’s 1-0 win over Stirling Albion increased the gap at the summit.

But Laird is adamant that, with two-thirds of the campaign still to play, the league table is largely irrelevant at present.

“It’s a long season,” he said. “We found that out last season when we led the league all the way to February and then we hit a difficult spell when we had injuries and struggled to get over the line, so it’s maybe a good thing to be going under the radar instead.

“Everybody’s talking about Cove, they’ve been outstanding so far. But they’re not having everything their own way. Look at their last game against Stirling Albion when they needed a late penalty to win it. It’s still too early in the campaign to be worrying about the size of the gap and things like that.

“The most important thing for us is to focus on picking up as many points as we can in each match. If Cove win every game between now and the end of the season, you hold your hands up and say they’ve been the best team in the league but we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves.”

City needed a late goal to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to Elgin last weekend, but Laird isn’t overly concerned by that perceived slip-up. “Last weekend was frustrating but Elgin are one of the best teams we’ve played this season, especially going forward,” said the midfielder. “Them and Cove have been the strongest opponents we’ve faced - I think they’ll definitely be in the play-offs this year. We also weren’t at our best so to come back and get a point on a day like that shows we’ve got a bit of resilience about us.”

Laird is hopeful that his team can get back on track when they welcome eighth-placed Albion Rovers to Ainslie Park on Saturday (kick-off 3pm). “It’ll be a tough game,” he said. “They seem to have improved this year. I know the league maybe doesn’t show that but they’ve had some good results and they’ve certainly made it hard for us in the two games we’ve played against them this season. We’ve just got to make sure everybody’s concentrated.”