'There are three divisions between the teams, after all' - Edinburgh City will dust themselves down after being routed by Hamilton Accies

Citizens turn focus to promotion as cup run ends

Edinburgh City first-team coach Colin Jack admitted there was a gulf in class after watching the Capital side crash out of the William Hill Scottish Cup 5-0 to Hamilton Accies.

The Citizens, who were contesting a fourth-round tie for the first time in the club’s history, were well beaten at the Fountain of Youth Stadium. Goals from Andy Dales, Scott McMann, a deflected Scott Martin effort, Andy Winter and Mickel Miller ensured a place in the fifth round was never in doubt for the Ladbrokes Premiership side.

Jack admitted his side were outplayed as the League Two title hopefuls failed to land a glove on the South Lanarkshire outfit.

James McDonaugh's side were soundly beaten by Hamilton. Pic: SNS

“We lost a couple of cheap goals and we never played as well as we could have,” Jack said afterwards. “The third goal before half-time completely killed it as a contest. They’re a good team though so credit to them. They’ve beaten Hearts and Motherwell recently so it was maybe a bit of a reality check for where we are at. Hamilton have a good squad, are well coached and they scrap for everything so we knew it was going to be an uphill task. There are three divisions between the teams, after all.

“We’re always confident with the group of players that we’ve got, but we were missing some key players right from the start. Although he played, Craig (Thomson) hadn’t trained all week so that gave us a dilemma.

“We win a lot of games in our league so the pressure is normally on us. It wasn’t this weekend, so we’ve just got to learn from this and move on.

“We must now refocus on the league. Hopefully, we’ll have some faces back for this weekend’s trip to Stenhousemuir.”

The visitors failed to heed the early warning signs and fell behind midway through the first half when Dales, who had earlier hit the crossbar, beat Thomson to the ball to head Accies in front.

Miller forced Alan Martin into a low save that saw the goalkeeper turn the ball round his left-hand post. However, Accies doubled their advantage when McMann was the beneficiary of a loose ball and the full-back’s strike flew into the bottom corner past an unsighted Martin.

Dales was proving a constant menace as City struggled to contain the on-loan Scunthorpe attacker.

The tie was put to bed right on the stroke of half-time when former Hibee Scott Martin’s goal-bound shot took a wicked deflection off Danny Handling and wrong-footed his namesake in the City goal.

James McDonaugh’s men did see a bit more possession in the final third after the break, but were unable to test Accies No.1 Owain Fon Williams.

Substitute Andy Winter and Miller rubbed salt into the wounds with two further goals inside the final ten minutes.

Hamilton Accies: Fon Williams, McGowan (Collar 34), McMann (Hunt 46), Fjortoft, Oakley, Alston, Miller, Gogic, Easton, Martin, Dales (Winter 63). Subs: Gourlay, Hunt, Davies, Smith, Ogkmpoe.

Edinburgh City: Martin, Thomson, Balatoni, Brown, Handling, Wilson, Crane, Kane, Shepherd (Court 80), L Henderson, Harris (Sinclair 81). Subs: Beveridge, Quaite, Sinclair, Stewart, Newman, Shaw.