EDINBURGH City under-19s saved their poorest performance of the season in the SFA Scottish Youth Cup at Dumbarton.
It was a disappointing performance from the Capital team, who travelled west full of confidence. However, some poor defending early on and a controversial refereeing decision which denied them a goal at a crucial moment, added up to a defeat.
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Dumbarton players could hardly believe their luck when they went ahead with only five minutes played after the City defence failed to clear an attack on their goal.
The ball was played to the edge of the box by a Dumbarton forward for an in-rushing midfielder to smack home the ball into the net.
The visitors almost equalised from a corner by Danny Denholm which was met by the head of Shaun Harrison, but his header crashed off the bar and over to safety. Worse was to follow for the Edinburgh outfit after 20 minutes when they were caught out in possession on the edge of their own box, and the Dumbarton players were quick to capitalise when one of their team skipped past two challenges to swing in a cross from the left-hand side of the box to the far post for a striker to head in.
City pulled a goal back when Robbie Dunn broke into the box and was upended by the big Dumbarton centre-half.
Dunn coolly slotted away the resultant penalty to make the score 2-1 at half-time.
After the restart, City found themselves 3-1 down when a neat Dumbarton move punished more slack marking in the City defence for their forward to slip the ball past keeper Craig Strong.
City almost pulled a goal back when Peter Stenhouse found himself with space in the box only to see his shot crash against the Dumbarton bar.
Edinburgh thought they had scored a second goal when Denholm met a cross to power a header into the net. To everyone's disbelief, however, the goal was disallowed by the referee as Denholm was adjudged to have fouled the Dumbarton defender.
City scored a second goal from a corner with an acrobatic overhead kick from Ian McFarland to make the score 3-2, but, unfortunately, it was all too late as the final whistle sounded the end of the match.
The best team won on the day and City can have no complaints about the outcome.
