Lowland League: Next three games crucial for Edinburgh University

The students are bracing themselves for a tough pre-Christmas run as they face three matches in just six days.

First up is the visit of league leaders BSC Glasgow to East Peffermill tomorrow followed by a trip to Stirling University on Tuesday night.

The Capital side, who are currently ninth, are then on the road again on Friday when they travel to Galabank to play hosts Edusport Academy.

However, Ogunro insists last weekend’s 1-0 victory at league champions East Kilbride – the Uni also having to contend with the dismissal of striker Jack Guthrie in the second half – has given his players a real lift as they target a strong end to the year.

“I’ve always looked at this run of games we have coming up and felt that if we can manage it well and pick up some points then it will be a real bonus,” Ogunro said. “We had a great result last week at East Kilbride and showed we have a tough mentality and that we can compete with any side in this division on our day.

“We only had two outfield players on the bench so that was particularly pleasing given how stretched we were for numbers.

“We deserved to win. We went in with a plan and played slightly different to how we normally would.

“We didn’t park the bus, we just defended well and when we were attacking we threw numbers forward.

“East Kilbride’s players don’t respect us. You could tell that and we played on it. It’s not the coaches, as their attitude is fantastic, but that just made us even more determined. It’s given us a real platform to work with going forward.”

Uni are just five points adrift of a place in the top half of the table. However, Ogunro revealed he is set to be without some key personnel over the coming weeks.

“We’ll be missing Jack Guthrie tomorrow through suspension and Finn [Daniels-Yeoman] and Rafa [Calbacho] are also unavailable. A lot of the guys’ focus is elsewhere with exams on at the moment, which is understandable, but that doesn’t help,” Ogunro explained. “But I’ve been here a long time now so I’m used to players being in and out of the team and having to make adjustments.

“Our form has been pretty good lately so the last two or three months have been pleasing. We’ll do everything we can to get a result tomorrow with the players we have available but we know BSC aren’t top of the league for nothing. They lost to East Stirlingshire last week so they will be out to made amends.

“We want to build on last Saturday’s win but it’s really difficult when you are having to make wholesale changes. To be fair, the squad have adapted quite well and it will be a competitive side regardless.”

Meanwhile, title-chasing Spartans are in action tonight as they make the short journey along the M9 to play Stirling University at the Falkirk Stadium (kick-off 7.45pm).

Dougie Samuel’s men are in the driving seat with games in hand on the teams above them and could leapfrog East Kilbride into second with a win – for 24 hours at least.

Elsewhere, Whitehill Welfare welcome bottom side Hawick Royal Albert to Ferguson Park. The Borders club have lost all 15 matches this season scoring just five goals since the beginning of August. The Roswell men are currently 13th but could jump a few places should they take maximum points.

And Civil Service Strollers are down in action at Yarrow Park against Selkirk. The Borders outfit ran Spartans close last weekend before losing out 2-1 at Ainslie Park and will be tough opposition for Alex Cunningham’s men.