Edinburgh City manager Gary Jardine believes there is nothing to choose between the Highland and Lowland champions ahead of the SPFL play-off first leg against Cove at Harlaw Park on Saturday.
Jardine, whose City side has cantered to a second successive title, were just edged out by Brora Rangers at the same stage last season, said: “I watched Cove play against Formartine a couple of weeks ago, and ourselves and Cove are quite similar. The strengths are in the team as opposed to individuals.
“Ross Allum has scored a lot of goals for us and Daryl Nicol has done the same for Cove, but the success of both clubs has been built on team-work.
“We lost out to Brora last year so we would love to go one better this time around. We have to accept the prize for finishing top of the league is a two-legged play-off. It is the reward for a hard season, difficult games of course, but we would love to be the ones to progress this time.”
City will have home advantage in the second leg at Meadowbank Stadium but Jardine does not think that gives his side any advantage, when he added: “Our lads love going away from home and it suits our style of play at times, but I don’t think it’ll be any advantage as Cove have won all of their games away from home throughout this season anyway.
“I suspect these will be two really close matches. They are very good defensively, but they have strength in all areas and look an experienced bunch. But our players have another year’s experience, it will be close.”