Heartbreak for Edinburgh as Cove grab last-minute winner

Edinburgh vs. Cove Rangers

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It was a crushing end to Edinburgh University’s first appearance in the 3rd Round of the Scottish Cup since 1890. In the dying seconds, young Cove Rangers defender Phil McKibben was quickest to react to Barrie Stephen’s low cross, and poked the ball home at a crowded near post just seconds from the final whistle. Edinburgh, reduced to ten men minutes earlier when Scott Fusco received his second yellow card, will consider themselves very unlucky not to have earned at least a replay after a hugely open, entertaining and controversial game.

Numerous chances went begging at both ends, but Edinburgh will rue two key incidents that seemed to turn the game in Cove’s favour. The first was a serious injury to experienced midfielder Neil “Zorro” Irvine, who went down clutching his shoulder after an innocuous-looking challenge in the centre circle. Irvine was stretchered off the pitch and rushed to hospital with less than 20 minutes played, forcing Dougie Samuel to bring on Peder Beck-Friis and revert from his preferred 3-5-2 formation to a more conventional 4-4-2.

Beck-Friis launched straight into the action, and in the 25th minute he earned a free-kick just outside the Cove penalty box. The referee seemed to show Eric Watson a yellow card for obstruction, but when Watson was booked again, for a reckless challenge on Michael Hazeldine with just over an hour played, no red card appeared. Edinburgh may feel hard done by, but with better finishing either team might already have sealed qualification to the fourth round by that point.

Both teams took a while to settle into the game but Cove had the better of the early chances, burly winger Stephen in particular looking dangerous on the right. Irvine’s injury, however, seemed to galvanize the Uni team and they looked to be gaining the upper hand, Andrew Cook firing just past the left-hand post a minute before half-time. Cove’s best chance of the half came in the 40th minute when Fusco inadvertently connected with Stephen’s menacing low cross and missed his own goal by just inches.

Edinburgh twice went close after the break, Alisdair McKinnon clipping the bar from 25 yards and Steven Maxwell turning Beck-Friis’ cross just over after a fast break from Jamie Redman. Their manager’s decision to rest the effervescent Jack Beesley in midweek appeared to have paid dividends as he was at the heart of most of the team’s best movement. But it was another otherwise outstanding player, Scott Fusco, who may have changed the game when he was booked twice in the space of ten minutes, for an untidy foul and an unnecessary hand-ball on the edge of the box.

Samuel responded to the sending-off by replacing striker Hazeldine with defender Fraser Munro for the last five minutes. The aim, clearly, was to hang on to their clean sheet and hope to earn a replay in a week’s time. The home team, however, were unrelenting and McKibben pounced on a rare piece of sloppy defending to put Cove ahead in the ninetieth minute. Edinburgh’s stunned players had no time left to find an equaliser before the prompt final whistle. Their disappointment was plain to see, but this young side can take heart from a tireless performance in a tie they were unlucky to come away from empty-handed.

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