Welfare are blown off course by City

Edinburgh City upset Whitehill Welfare's title aspirations with a 3-1 win against the Rosewell club at a blustery Meadowbank Stadium, allowing City's joint manager John Green to bask in the glory of a victory against the contenders for this season's Central Taxis Premier Division championship.

"We started magnificently and achieved a full head of steam, which meant our two first-half goals saw us well ahead at half-time," said Green. "Our players showed character and dug in to defend well and score another goal in stoppage time. After losing 4-1 to Whitehill in a cup tie only seven days ago, our players had a point to prove and they did that."

City took the lead midway through the first half when Ian McFarland slotted a through ball to James Elliot, who beat Youssef Bejaoui with a low shot from 16 yards. Three minutes before the break a Dougie Gair corner was headed in by Euan Black, before Peter Stenhouse was denied a third goal by a good save from Bejaoui.

Shortly after the interval, Willie Kidd headed home a Daryl Devlin corner to bring Whitehill back into contention and although they huffed and puffed they never seriously threatened Andrew Stobie in the City goal. In stoppage time, a McFarland cross was headed in by Ryan Wilson at the back post.

"We lost the game in the first half when we just did not turn up," lamented Whitehill manager, Paul Cavanagh. "We lost two very poor goals which left us chasing the game. However, we are certainly not giving up on our fight to win the title."

Edinburgh City: Stobie, Dingwall, Scott, Macnamara, K Ross, McFarland, Howat, Gair, Black, Stenhouse, Elliot. Subs: R Ross, Donaldson, Harvey, Wilson.

Whitehill Welfare: Bejaoui, W Kidd, Robertson, McGlashan, Caddow, Taylor, Gormley, A Kidd, Allum, Lunn, Devlin. Subs: Cornet, Morrison, Gibb, Beattie.

• SPARTANS, meanwhile, were on King Cup second round duty and comfortably disposed of Ormiston with a 4-0 win after being three ahead at half-time through goals from Dean Hoskins, Gavin Malin and Omar Kader.

Malin grabbed his second shortly after half-time to have joint manager Sam Lynch saying: "Overall we were delighted because we were able to give some players who were short of match fitness some valuable minutes. Jonny Seeley, Stewart Fowlie and Chris Smith all got 90 minutes while David Etale and Daniel O'Donnell both came on, which was very good for all concerned."

"We lost two very poor goals. However, we are certainly not giving up on our fight to win the title" Paul Cavanagh