We've sent rivals into a panic, says Edinburgh City keeper

Andrew Stobie has become the regular first-choice keeper for Edinburgh City. Picture: Paul Reid

After a torrid start to life as an SPFL club following their promotion in the summer, Gary Jardine’s men are now one of the form teams in the division having picked up seven points from their past three fixtures – albeit they still remain in bottom spot.

But that form has now taken the Meadowbank club to within two points of second-bottom Montrose, who this week sacked manager Paul Hegarty following a run of disappointing results.

And now Stobie believes that the Angus club’s decision to dismiss the former Dundee United boss is an indication that teams are becoming increasingly wary of City’s upturn in fortunes.

“We’ve certainly taken a lot of confidence from our results recently but we’re taking nothing for granted as there’s still a lot of work to be done,” the 25-year-old said ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Cowdenbeath.

“I think clubs are beginning to panic now with the Lowland League and the play-offs as teams can’t afford to be relegated. But it’s never nice to see any manager lose his job and I was surprised at the decision to let him [Hegarty] go. Having played against Montrose twice this season I think they have been one of the hardest teams to beat. They’ve had some  really good results against Forfar, ourselves and Annan so I think he was doing a good job. But I just think that boards and committees don’t want to contemplate relegation. “We  always said the first quarter of the season was going to be a learning curve for us all,” he continued. “When you play local football you know the guys your coming up against week in week out but that changes when you move up divisions. We’re doing a lot of video analysis so we can learn from our mistakes.”

Despite the 1-0 victory over Annan six days ago, City were left bottom following Cowdenbeath’s 2-0 win over Montrose.

However, with the Blue Brazil in town tomorrow, Stobie accepts they won’t get a better chance to start climbing the table.

“We knew it was the same going into last week that three points would take us off the bottom,” he said. “But we know a win over Cowdenbeath will take us above them. That said, they have got some very good players who have played at the highest level, including the Premiership, so we know it’s going to be extremely difficult. They beat us the last time we played each other (2-0 in August).

“To see ourselves off the bottom, though, would be a huge boost to us all. There’s only five points between ourselves and Berwick, who are up in fifth so it is really tight. We’ve just got to stay in the pack for as long as we can and hopefully come the summer we’ll still be a League Two club.”

Stobie has made the No. 1 position his own since taking over from Calum Antell towards the end of September and is targeting his fourth consecutive clean sheet tomorrow.

“I’m pleased with my form but it’s a team effort at Edinburgh City,” he explained. “I was down at the Under-20s game on Monday night as Calum was playing so I was there to support him. We try and get the best out of each other in training and take that into the games. Fortunately, I’ve got the jersey and at the moment and I want to hold onto it. But Gary might want to change that up next week and if he does I’ll support Calum 100 per cent.

“If I can keep coming away with clean sheets though then there’s nothing more I can do.”