Two goal 'disaster' leaves Edinburgh City boss unable to find positives at Stenhousemuir

Angry boss James McDonaugh was unimpressed by his side's performance (Photo by Euan Cherry / SNS Group)

The Citizens were second best at Ochilview and struggled to lay a glove on the hosts as they slipped to fifth in League Two – four points adrift of early pacesetters Queen’s Park.

Greig Spence’s second-half brace earned the Warriors a well-deserved three points.

And McDonaugh admitted afterwards he left his players in no uncertain terms what he felt about their lacklustre display.

“The better team won the game – I’m struggling to find any positives from that performance,” he said. “It was really poor and I’ve told them how I feel about it. The two goals are a disaster from our point of view. We got exactly what we deserved.

“Their forwards caused our defenders problems and we didn’t deal with them and our forwards didn’t cause their defence any problems. I tried to change the shape and personnel to get us back into the game and they couldn’t do it. It was really bad.

“They were better in every aspect out there. We had a couple of chances cleared off the line but I think that’s clutching at straws.

“I thought we were really good at Brechin in our opening game and then we lost to Cowdenbeath in a match we definitely deserved to take something. We got back on track against Elgin last week so you just try to get a run going and need that second win in a row.”

The hosts almost found themselves with the lead inside 60 seconds but skipper Craig Thomson’s timely intervention denied Ryan Blair what looked a certain goal.

Striker Ouzy See then saw his looping header land on top of the net as City launched a rare attack before Sam Newman’s cutback into the path of Danny Handling drew a fingertip stop from Paddy Martin in the home side’s goal.

Blair had another opportunity just seconds before the half-time interval but could only steer his shot into the side netting from the angle.

Stenny did, however, breach the visitors’ goal less than a minute into the second half when a deep cross into the box sparked confusion among the City rearguard, with Newman inadvertently knocking the ball into the path of Spence, who had the easiest of tasks in firing into the empty net.

City conceded a second from the penalty spot in the 70th minute following Liam Henderson’s rash challenge on Tommy Muir and Spence duly obliged steering his effort from 12 yards into the top corner.

Substitute Blair Henderson did see his shot late on cleared off the line in what was otherwise a bad day at the office for McDonaugh’s men.

Stenhousemuir: Martin, Tiffoney, Munro, Little, Yeats, Hodge (Brown 89), Biabi (McGuigan 84), Blair, Tapping, Muir, Spence (Graham 90). Subs: Erskine, McQueen, Fairley, Watters, Grigor, Halleran.

Edinburgh City: Antell, Thomson, Balatoni, L Henderson, Newman, McGill (Brown 56), Laird (Butterworth 80), Handling, Campbell, See (B Henderson 46), De Vita (Cunningham 56). Subs: Sharp, Black, Quate, Hamilton.

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