Edinburgh City 3 Vale of Leithen 1

THREE goals in 14 second half minutes ensured leaders Edinburgh City extended their Lowland League advantage but not before they received a major scare from Vale of Leithen.

The visitors to Meadowbank Stadium held their opponents at half time and should have been in front, only for ex-City striker Robbie Ross to miss a penalty.

His failure was punished immediately after the break, as Ouzy See, on trial from Selkirk, banged in two goals and Mark McConnell scored with a stunning strike.

While the defeat coupled with Selkirk’s win at Preston Athletic sees Vale drop to second bottom of the league, manager Mickey Lawson was not too despondent.

He said: “Edinburgh City are a powerful, organised side who wait for their opponents to shoot themselves in the foot.

“While I don’t know if the penalty miss was a pivotal moment, we were poor for all three of City’s goals.

“However, there were plenty of positives as well. We are not trying to measure ourselves against the likes of City or Spartans or Whitehill but the rest of the league and our form in recent weeks has got us back into the pack.”

With former Scottish Government Justice Secretary and local MSP Kenny MacAskill watching on, some of the first half play bordered on criminal.

Misplaced passes, wayward shots and a general lack of composure meant it was a very poor spectacle for the supporters scattered amongst Meadowbank’s vast and deteriorating stand.

See was the one player who looked like he could find the net, and he almost capitalised on hesitation by Vale goalkeeper Andy McQueen and Ross Brady, but his toepoke struck the post.

Vale had a great chance to go in front when Keith McLeod broke through, but he dithered and allowed City to block his shot, with Sean Elliot’s weak follow up effort was easily saved by Andrew Stobie.

Eight minutes before half time saw the visitors’ golden chance as Bradley Rixon was fouled by Joe Mbu, but Ross was only able to hit his spot kick straight at Stobie.

With East Kilbride without a game, three points for City was vital and the fired up hosts went in front two minutes after the break as Dougie Gair’s cross was tapped in by See.

Three minutes later, McConnell’s 30 yard rocket smashed off the bar and into the net off the back of McQueen, while the goalkeeper was at fault for the third just after the hour when he could only palm a McConnell shot into the path of Gair to cross for See to score his second. Unsurprisingly, See is expected to be signed up by Jardine this week, having scored three goals in four games.

Keith McLeod responded with 14 minutes to go with a superb turn and finish for his second goal in three games, but it proved to be just a consolation.

Vale of Leithen: A. McQueen, R. Sclater, R. Brady, S. Lynch, J. Elliot, L. McIntosh, A. Hunter, B. Rixon (K. Mitchell 83), R. Ross, K. McLeod, S. Elliot (D. Gallacher 57).