Edinburgh City players aim to take frustration out on Elgin

Graham Taylor, right, has flourished at City since leaving Dundee United

Top scorer Blair Henderson’s 21st goal of the campaign rescued a point for the Ladbrokes League Two leaders at Ainslie Park after the Citizens had fallen behind to a Jason Brown effort. It is the first time City have drawn in the league the season and it preserved the Capital outfit’s two-point lead over the Balmoor club at the summit.

However, 20-year-old Taylor admitted there was a sense of frustration within the home dressing room afterwards.

Ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Elgin City, Taylor said: “We’ve become so used to winning that Tuesday felt like a defeat to be honest. If you look at it, Peterhead are probably the biggest team in the division with the most money and fans so it’s not a bad result. We’re still top of the league so we just need to focus on tomorrow’s game with Elgin now.

“If you look at Leicester when they won the Premier League a couple of years ago, people started to say as early as January that they could go on and win it and look what happened. We’re only a couple of weeks from January now ourselves. That said, we know there’s still a long way to go but there is a wee bit of a gap beginning to develop between ourselves, Peterhead and the rest of the teams.

“If you want to win the league then you need to win the bigger games. But that’s us played Peterhead twice now and we’ve taken four points so that’s not a bad return. We’re down to the bare bones so we’re having to put a few of the young boys on the bench.

“If you lose three or four games in this league you can shoot down the table again. It’s not as if we’re just winning, we’re playing well.”

Taylor, who returned to the club in the summer following a successful loan spell during the second half of last season, is thriving under boss James  McDonaugh.

The winger was released from Championship outfit Dundee United and didn’t think twice about signing on the dotted line with City.

“I think I’ve come on loads since I’ve been at the club,” he said. “I’ve learned to play a man’s game. It’s been great working under James and Colin (Jack) and even the chairman, he’s been so supportive.

“I didn’t leave Dundee United on good terms to be honest. I was released but all I’ll say is the gaffer at the time (Csaba Laszlo) wasn’t very good to the younger boys. He didn’t even have a meeting with me to tell me the news, it was left to the under-20s coach.

“Under Ray MacKinnon I played a few first-team games and felt I was really kicking on. But then he got sacked and Csaba came in and that was that.

“But that’s behind me now and I’m really enjoying my time here. I’ve played a lot of games this season already. I’m definitely looking to add more goals to my game. I’ve only scored two this season but both them came at Hampden! My build-up play has been good, it’s just my end product that maybe lets me down. It’s something I need to work on.”

A statistic Taylor isn’t proud of is the nine bookings he has already collected.

“Because I’ve always been wee, I’ve got into this habit where I pull players back,” he explained. “I really need to cut that out of my game. The gaffer isn’t too keen on silly bookings  but I know that myself,  it’s really stupid.”