James McDonaugh praises key trio after hard-fought win over Elgin City

Edinburgh City boss James McDonaugh praised trio Gabby McGill, Ouzy See and Marc Laird as his side returned to winning ways with a 1-0 success over Elgin City.

Gabby McGill netted the only goal of the game as Edinburgh City defeated Elgin City 1-0

On-loan McGill netted the only goal of the game at a wind-swept Ainslie Park midway through the first half as the Citizens made it two wins from three in League Two.

McDonaugh made three changes from the previous week’s 1-0 defeat to Cowdenbeath and those alterations in personnel paid dividends with City now moving up to joint-second and just a point adrift of leaders Queen’s Park.

Blair Henderson, Andy Black and Liam Brown found themselves relegated to the substitutes’ bench for the visit of the Morayshire outfit with McGill, on loan from Dunfermline, See and Laird all making an impact.

“We’ve got a strong squad so if you lose a game then it puts players under pressure,” McDonaugh explained.

“We had a few hard decisions to make but I think they proved to be the right ones. Gabby McGill starts and scores the winning goal, Ouzy See did well and Marc Laird controlled the game so there were three changes from the previous week and they worked.

“Sometimes they go for you and sometimes they don’t as a manager but it’s a good reaction and the one I wanted.

“Both teams were trying to play football but never really got that chance because of the wind. I think the difference was probably we played better into the wind than they did. In the second half, in particular, it was just a case of the ball was going out the park, back in, back out it was that bad.

“We were probably a wee bit lucky at times but in general play I thought we were the better team. We played some good stuff and even in the second half we pressed them really well. It’s a big three points for us so the only disappointment is we should be sitting top.

“The guys that found themselves out of the team will need to fight for their place but there’s still 24 league games to go so they’ll all play their part. Provided people are playing well then it’s a good position to be in.”

City now face Stenhousemuir at Ochilview on Saturday.

McDonaugh added: “We’ve had a couple of games at home so we’re looking forward to Stenhousemuir. We drew with them in the Betfred Cup last month so we want to go one better this time round. We want to put a run together now and see where that takes us.”

Edinburgh City: Antell, Thomson, Balatoni, L Henderson, Newman, Handling, Laird, Campbell, McGill (Harris 87), See, De Vita (Brown 90). Subs not used: Black, B Henderson, Jardine, Hamilton, Cunningham, Butterworth, Sharp.

Elgin City: McHale, Cooper, Bronsky, McDonald (McHardy 83), Spark (Peters 76), Dingwall, Cameron, MacEwan (Mailer 83), O’Keefe, Osadolor (Sopel 70), Hester. Subs not used: Wilson, MacBeath, Kelly.

Referee: Peter Stuart.

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