Maximum haul during December is a confidence booster for Edinburgh City

Scott Shepherd believes City need fear no-one as they pursue Cove Rangers

Scott Shepherd reckons Edinburgh City can handle anything the League Two title race can throw at them after they emerged from a formidable December fixture run with a maximum haul of 12 points.

James McDonaugh’s side ended 2019 on the ultimate high as they won four games in succession against top-six opposition to move within two points of long-time leaders Cove Rangers.

Having negotiated such a testing sequence unscathed, Shepherd believes his side are perfectly equipped for the demands of the second half of their league campaign, which begins with another tough trip to fifth-place Elgin City tomorrow.

“December was probably the best month we’ve had since I’ve been here because we’ve beaten some of the strongest teams in the league,” said attacker Shepherd. “The Cove game was obviously the big one, and we were brilliant that day, and we’ve continued on since then. To beat the likes of Annan and Cowdenbeath as well was brilliant because they’re both always hard teams to play against us.

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t maintain this consistency. The month we’ve just had, I don’t think we’ll have a harder run than that between now and the end of the season and we’ve just taken 12 points out of 12. If we can keep that level of form going, I don’t see why we can’t go on and challenge for the title. The form we’re in stands us in good stead for this weekend because Elgin is another hard game. We’ve not beaten them this season so we want to go up there and get a victory.”

City have won 13 and drawn two of their 18 matches from the first half of the season, and Shepherd remains optimistic that they will eventually get their noses in front of Cove, who have led the way since day one.

“It’s amazing that we’ve had such a strong first half to the season but still aren’t top of the league,” said Shepherd. “In most other leagues, with the points we’ve got, we would be top. It’s just unfortunate that we’ve got another team in our league who are also flying at the minute.

“It’s not a major issue because in some ways there’s extra pressure on them to try and stay top than there is on us as the chasing team. They’ve got big names up there and they’re clearly paying big money but we’re quite confident we can take them all the way.

“We’ve got a big squad compared to previous seasons and most of our injured boys are starting to come back into contention so we’re in good shape. It says a lot about us that when boys are injured we’re still winning games.

“We’re not reliant on any individuals so if we are missing any players we’re still capable of maintaining our form.”