Aberdeen wheel out heavy artillery in easy victory over hard-working Edinburgh City - but there was one bad misfire

Christian Ramirez scores to make it 2-0 to Aberdeen.

Leaving nothing to chance, Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass decided to name his strongest team for this Scottish Cup fourth-round clash with Edinburgh City.

The chances of an upset appeared very slim even without the heavy artillery for the visit of Gary Naysmith’s League 2 outfit, but Glass wanted to make sure. It worked, with the Dons strolling to a 3-0 win over their part-time opponents from the capital.

Aberdeen fielded the same team that drew with Rangers on Tuesday. The big guns such as Scott Brown, Lewis Ferguson, Ryan Hedges, Calvin Ramsay and Christian Ramirez did fire a few blanks against the sitting ducks that were Edinburgh City, particularly in the second half. But in what was one of the biggest games in their history, City earned plenty of plaudits for effort – even if Dons keeper Joe Lewis barely touched the ball. He was only called into action once in the match.

Goals from Hedges on 22 minutes and Ramirez just before the break were ample reward for an utterly dominant first-half display. City goalkeeper Brian Schwake was an extremely busy man. Funso Ojo hit the post and saw an effort blocked by the young American loanee from Livingston, while Ramirez could have doubled his tally. The only disappointment for Aberdeen was that they did not have more goals on the scoreboard at the break.

Ryan Hedges put Aberdeen ahead against Edinburgh City.

That trend continued in a sleepy second half, with Aberdeen monopolising possession without any reward. A third goal ought to have come via Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, who contrived to strike the underside of the bar from close range.

City’s one and only chance came via Anthony McDonald, when a very rare foray forward resulted in the winger’s shot slapping the chest of Lewis with ten minutes to go. A goal at that stage would have been totally undeserved, but at least would have made what had turned into a training session vaguely interesting.

Aberdeen did get that third goal right on full time, a looping Ferguson header finding the net. Bigger tests await Aberdeen in this competition, while City head south with their pride in tact.

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