Match Report

After a sluggish start, the league leaders slowly grew into their rhythm and opened the scoring in the 20th minute. A quickly-taken throw-in saw Marc Laird cushion a header down for Watson midway inside the hosts’ half and he played a defence-splitting pass through for Taylor who squared the ball across and it was tuned turned past his own keeper by Talbot. City almost doubled their lead eight minutes later when Robbie Deas misjudged the bounce of a high ball under pressure from Blair Henderson and the striker nipped in to steal possession before watching his effort cannon back off David McGurn’s left-hand post.

Perhaps the most notable incident of a largely dull first-half was referee Stephen Brown’s decision to brandish Conrad Balatoni with just a yellow card after his last-man challenge on Josh Skelly had the home fans calling for the centre-half to be sent off. City’s rear-guard were living dangerously at times, far from the composed and astute defending their supporters have grown accustomed to seeing of late. The home side were unable to take advantage, though, with Fraser Mullen’s free-kick narrowly flying over the crossbar and Jordan Allan’s long-range attempt failing to hit the target. The rain poured down, making the playing surface slick and fast, and it was Edinburgh City who gave themselves a much-needed two-goal cushion after 57 minutes. It was all too easy. A long throw into the box from the left touchline by Gareth Rodger was met in the air by the unmarked Blair Henderson who headed past McGurn for his 25th goal of an already astonishing campaign. Any hope Cowdenbeath had of salvaging something from the game were dashed when Talbot was given his marching orders for appearing to stamp on Robbie McIntyre.

man of the match: blair henderson

Report courtesy of the Edinburgh Evening News