James McDonaugh admits Edinburgh City have striker headache after duo hit form

Edinburgh City survived a late scare from Ladbrokes League Two rivals Annan Athletic to book their place in the William Hill Scottish Cup fourth round – the first time in the club’s history – after a 4-3 victory, writes NEIL McGLADE.

The Citizens stormed into a 3-0 lead after 28 minutes at Ainslie Park, Blair Henderson’s brace and Jonny Court putting James McDonaugh’s men firmly in control at the break.

Nathan Flanagan reduced the arrears three minutes after the restart but Alex Harris appeared to have killed the game off with a fourth just 60 seconds later.

But Tommy Muir’s penalty made it 4-2 with 20 minutes remaining and Flanagan added his second of the afternoon ten minutes later to set up a tense finish. However, the Capital outfit held out to see the job through.

McDonaugh admitted the current form of his strikers is giving him a real selection headache.

“It’s difficult just now to pick the team, particularly the forwards as they are all scoring goals,” he said. “Jonny and Blair have come in to the team and had scored three between them by half-time so it was a good return. I though Blair took his goals well and were proper striker’s goals.

“I thought in the first half we were as good as we have been recently but they got a wee sniff back at 4-2. We panicked a bit gave away too many free kicks and never controlled the game very well. Fair play to Annan, they threw everything at us but we just did enough to hold on. We’re into the fourth round for the first time in the club’s history so that’s another thing we can tick off the list.”