Edinburgh City ensure South's Cup hopes go west

SCOTTISH Cup champions Edinburgh City strolled through the South East Region Youth FA under-17 Michael Moran Cup final to claim their second piece of silverware in a fortnight.

Two weeks after defeating Hillwood at Airdrie to win the national tournament, City outclassed Edinburgh South at Penicuik Juniors' ground, winning 5-0 and staying on course for a clean sweep of six trophies this season – a feat that would equal their 100 per cent haul in 2008-09.

Exquisite finishing produced three goals in the opening 25 minutes and two further strikes after half-time sealed victory.

Edinburgh South, led by flawless skipper Jordan Finnie in midfield, are a side whose football is easy on the eye but they just couldn't generate enough cohesive play and struggled to trouble the City backline.

Instead, it was City who controlled the first-half, resulting in some spectacular strikes flying past the helpless Stuart Dodds in the South goal.

Ryan Hutchison opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour, twisting and turning towards the edge of the penalty area – the South defence unable to pin him down to put in a tackle – and neatly stroking the ball into the top right-hand corner from 20 yards.

Two minutes later, South were shell-shocked as City struck a second in swift succession. A quick, clever corner by City opened up an acre of space for Craig Sinclair to shoot from the left-hand corner of the penalty area and, although his strike was destined to fly wide of the right-hand post, City defender Michael Travis nipped in to divert the ball into the net with his head.

If South still clung to hopes of a turnaround, City killed their chances just moments later when David McNeil converted from close range.

In truth, the lead could – and should – have been more than three as the superb Nicholas Locke spurned three gilt-edged opportunities, misses for which he was to later atone.

City relaxed their pressure game in the second half but still punished South further in the final 15 minutes of the match.

Firstly, Gavin Pettigrew was handed possession from a throw-in on the right flank 30 yards out, and turned to face the South goal before striking a long, rising shot into the top right-hand corner. Then, a cross from the same right wing sat up nicely at waist height for the lurking Locke to acrobatically smash a six-yard volley past Dodds to complete the scoring.

Liam Smith almost added a sixth in the dying minutes but struck the post with a header, however, City coach Ross McNeil was naturally delighted to have won the game in such comprehensive fashion.

He said: "The boys who played today all performed very well, and it doesn't matter who scores the goals."

Edinburgh City: Lee Millar, Craig Tulloch, Liam Smith, Kayne Paterson, Brad McKay, Michael Travis, David McNeil, Nicholas Locke, Jordan Thomson, Gavin Pettigrew, Craig Sinclair, Ross Yeoman, Kenny O'Brien, Ryan Hutchison.

Edinburgh South: Stuart Dodds, Greg Turnbull, Cameron Scott, Dean Walker, Graeme Hurd, Chris Wood, Jordan Finnie, Stuart Martin, James Cuthbertson, Connor Handren, Adam Hill, Robbie Waugh, Liam Stevenson, Ross Davies.