BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
The Emirates or Elgin? The Burj Khalifa or Berwick Rangers?
It may seem like a simple decision, but Edinburgh City captain Dougie Gair insists he is ready to put his Arabian adventure on hold for a crack at League Two.
The 30-year-old is a personal trainer by trade and is planning to upsticks with his partner, Frances, and head to Dubai to pursue a business opportunity in the Middle-East.
However, that scheme could be delayed by City’s march towards the SPFL. Gair scored the only goal of the game at Meadowbank as the capital club drew a 1-1 against Cove Rangers to progress 4-1 on aggregate.
They will face East Stirlingshire over two legs for a place in league football and Gair, who was considering hanging up his boots, admits the prospect may be too good to turn down after 12 years at the club.
He said: “Dubai is something that’s in the pipeline. I’ve been out there a couple of times and I love it out there. With my work and my partner’s job it’d be ideal to get us out there and it’s something we want to do.
“My Mrs is a teacher as well so there’s no problem going out there and getting work – and we just fancy doing something different.
“Could I put it off a year? I don’t think I’m in charge of that decision! It’s something that we’re going to do at some point but it might be a heated discussion! I’ve been here [at City] for a very long time – and if we go up it would be hard to turn down the chance to play league football.
“We’ll see what happens. It could be a season ending and the ultimate aim is getting promoted as a team. We’ve been a team all year and we want to do it together.”
Gair played a captain’s role for City to settle any lingering nerves at Meadowbank after 32 minutes.
Leading 3-0 from the first leg at Harlaw Park, City killed off the tie when Gair hared through on goal after chasing his own chip forward and capatalising on a short back-pass by Darryn Kelly. His dink over Cove keeper John McCafferty was delightful.
Underdogs
The Highland League champions did restore some pride, with Jamie Watt levelling the score on the day with a back-post header after a scramble in the box. However, City were never in danger of surrendering their advantage and cruised through to their date with destiny as they look to reach the SPFL for the first time in their history.
Gair added: “East Stirling are at the higher level so they will be the favourites – but we like the underdog status. We were underdogs against Cove and look what happened there.
“Confidence certainly won’t be an issue for us, we’ve been winning all season. The lads will be raring to go, we’ll have a plan in mind and set up to get the right result.”
