Gary Naysmith says 'energy' provided by Edinburgh City players 'shows they care'

Edinburgh City Manager Gary Naysmith was delighted with his team's response last week

The Citizens suffered an embarrassing 4-0 home defeat to Albion Rovers seven days prior but responded with a much-improved display, striker John Robertson's brace and last-minute James Hilton effort securing all three points.

City are on their travels tomorrow aiming to make it back-to-back wins for only the second time this season when they play Stirling Albion at Forthbank.

Naysmith insists the players and staff are in a much better place following victory over the Blues.

“We had to have a positive reaction from everybody last week, including myself,” he said.

“It was a long week and everyone associated with Edinburgh City was hurting after the Albion defeat. We needed to try and get a result.

“For me, as a manager, it was probably more important that I saw a reaction from the players against Stranraer.

“I've been there myself as a player, you have a result like the one against Albion Rovers and you come into the next game a wee bit fragile, and then they go and make it 2-1. But we got through it so it was a big three points.

“There are still things we can improve on but to give us the energy they gave us, it shows they care for the club.”

Naysmith has also taken encouragement from the goals his team scored last week and hopes to have more players back from injury in the next week or so.

He added: “I hope that is John up and running. Goals give strikers confidence but I hope the team as a whole has taken some confidence.

“Hopefully it won't be too long before we get one or two back because we want to boost the competition for places. Danny Jardine has stepped up his rehab so that's encouraging.”

Binos boss Kevin Rutkiewicz, whose side have lost their previous two League Two fixtures, said: "Edinburgh City is a big game, there is no getting away from that.

“We want to win and stop the rot. We want to get a home win and move on to the Scottish Cup game against Tranent with a bit of confidence.”