Praise for City despite exiting cup

City lost 2-0 away to League One side Kelty Hearts as the Fifers took their place in the fourth round.

Ruaridh Lynch started in goal having returned to the Glebe Park club on a co-operation loan from Dundee due Craig Hepburn being unavailable.

Both sides had chances early on, Craig Johnston for Kelty and Fraser Macleod for City each missing the target by inches.

The home side took the lead after 16 minutes when a corner hit Marley Sweenie-Rowe and ended up in his own net, while former Arbroath former midfielder Innes Murray tried to claim it.

Lynch got down his left to deny Luke McCarvel extending Kelty’s lead, and City appeared to take some inspiration from this.

The visitors started to dominate the play against a side two leagues above them, but without really creating any clearcut chances save for Cillian Sheridan hitting the pole behind the goal with the fierce volley.

After the break Murray came close to scoring in his own right as he fired against the post, but Kelty would double their lead on 65 minutes when Alex Ferguson curled the ball into the top corner.

Things went from bad to worse for City four minutes later when Sheridan was shown a second yellow card for an apparent foul on Ferguson, and with 10 men there was no way back into the game.

McKinnon said: “When you lose a game it’s disappointing, however, I thought that we were excellent, and the attitude of the players was fantastic.

“With their work-rate, endeavour and being so competitive I’m really pleased with their performance, I don’t think they deserved a 2-0 defeat.

“We were very unfortunate to go behind to an own goal. The ball came in and hit Marley on his hip and went past the keeper.

“Their second goal to be fair was a good 30-yard strike, but overall I thought the guys did pretty well and were very unfortunate.”

City are in a different cup competition this Saturday as they host Nairn County in the second round of the Highland League Cup.