Gary Naysmith’s first home game in charge of Edinburgh City ended in a 3-1 victory over Stenhousemuir at Ainslie Park this afternoon.
City took the lead after 16-minutes when Robbie McIntyre found Liam Brown who chipped the ball over the Stenhousemuir defence and Rafa De Vita was on hand to slot the ball past on-loan Hibs’ keeper Paddy Martin.
Midway through the first-half Lee Hamilton was shown a yellow card after a wrestling match in front of the home bench and was replaced by Samuel Greig Denham at the break.
Shortly after the restart McIntyre pounced on a mistake in the visitor’s defence but Martin did well to save his shot.
City doubled their advantage in the 62nd minute when De Vita sent a powerful strike into the bottom corner of the net.
Brown was next to try his luck but shot over then moments later Stenhousemuir pulled one back when Botti’s cross was headed home by Mark McGuigan.
Former Hibs winger Alex Harris replaced goal scorer De Vita then Henderson replaced See as City continued to press forward.
In the closing stages Danny Handling replaced Brown then Crane sent a dangerous cross but Blair’s shot flew just wide.
Ryan Blair almost equalised two minutes from time but his effort flew inches wide then City wrapped things up in time added on with a goal fashioned at the Hibs’ Training Centre when Harris set up Handling who fired in a superb strike from the edge of the area.
The game finished with a large scale brawl after a late challenge from Liam Henderson on Craig Little. In the aftermath Henderson was booked and Little shown a red card.
Edinburgh City: Antell; Thomson, Hamilton, L. Henderson, Crane; See, Black, Brown Jardine, De Vita, McIntyre Subs: B Henderson, Handling, Smith, Beveridge, Newman, Goodfellow, Denham, Harris
Stenhousemuir: Martin, Tiffoney, Brown, Little, Kane, Blair, Tapping, Hopkirk, Biabi, Muir, Mcguigan. Subs: Erskine, Halleran, Grigor, Spence, Docherty, Corbett, Fairley, Hodge, Collins
