Edinburgh City captain Dougie Gair has called on his team-mates to create history today by seizing a place in the Scottish Professional Football League.
The Lowland League champions have not competed in the senior leagues since 1949 but are tantalisingly close to sealing a dream return following last weekend’s first leg 1-1 draw with East Stirling.
The Citizens have already disposed of Highland League winners Cove Rangers at the pyramid semi-final stage and Gair, whose first half penalty was cancelled out by Max Wright’s strike at Meadowbank, is confident they can emerge victorious in this afternoon’s crucial decider at Ochilview.
He said: “We know what’s at stake and Saturday now is basically about who scores the most and takes all the plaudits from it.
“We’re either going to stay where we are or exchange places. There’s a lot at stake for both teams.
“We need to prepare right and hopefully we can go there, put in a good performance and see where that takes us.
“It would be massive for the club if we were to do it, some clubs are in favour of this and some aren’t, but we’re definitely in favour of it and we definitely want to make the step up.
“This will probably be our best chance and we’ve got ourselves in that position. All we need to do is go out, play potentially 90 minutes of football and hopefully we can do that.
“We’re a team that’s been together a few years now. We’ve built up from being a mid-table side to winning the league the last two years and we’ve got several players that can already play at SPFL level.
“We would definitely not be going up to play in these play-offs again next year. We want to go up and establish ourselves up there.”
Gair is hoping City are not left to rue wasting a series of chances in last weekend’s first leg.
He added: “I felt we dominated in spells last week and given our chances, we probably could have been out of sight.
“It’s not worked out that way, we knew it was going to be a battle and tough game and it worked out the way.”
The artificial pitch at Ochilview is another potential obstacle for Gary Jardine’s side to overcome but Gair insists the surface will not pose any problems.
He added: “We’re used to playing on artificial pitches. There are three or four teams in the league that play on it and we train on it as well.
“It’s not going to be a shock to the system, we’re used to training on that type of surface so hopefully that helps us out a bit.”
City were boosted by the news on Thursday that experienced former Cowdenbeath and East Fife defender Joe Mbu won his red card appeal after being dismissed in last weekend’s clash for an alleged kick.
Gair added: “It’s was pleasing to hear the news that Joe’s appeal was successful.
“He’s going to be a big player for us, his experience will shine through, as it has done for the majority of this season.
“It’s good to have a full complement available and Joe being available is a big bonus.”
