Edinburgh University seal semi slot

Published on 14/02/2013 12:00

Edinburgh UNIVERSITY beat Stirling University 3-1 to reach the semi-finals of the British Universities Football Trophy where they will meet either Leeds Metropolitan University or Cambridge University in a fortnight’s time.

Edinburgh started brightly and after only six minutes a misguided clearance from the Stirling goalkeeper found Kohei Habata, who calmly lofted the ball over the exposed custodian and into the net and from fully 35 yards.

Midway through the first half Edinburgh doubled their 
advantage when Shawn McMaster headed the ball against the Stirling crossbar and promptly reacted to the rebound to fire home from eight yards.

Stirling pressed after the interval and Johnny Tague brought them back into contention from the penalty spot, but with time running out, Andrey Kuzmenko set up Jack Beacher, 
who picked his spot to seal Edinburgh’s passage into the semi-finals.

Dorian Ogunro, the Edinburgh head coach, said: “That was a good performance. I thought we played well and worked really hard, especially off the ball, and that gave us a lot of attacking opportunities.”

Edinburgh University: Valentine, McMaster, Rankin, Ward, Main, Connelly, Cumming, Willaghan, Gray, Habata, Beacher. Subs: Whelan, Kuzmenko, Moosavi, Murray.

Stirling University: Fifer, Woodward, C Wilson, Parish, Stewart, S Wilson, Aitken, Clark, Tague, Crooks, Jacobs. Subs: Sutcliffe, Brandsoffer, Harpop, Tully, Fernandez.