SPARTANS might hope to have cornered the market as the capital's alternative football team but no-one appears to have told that to Edinburgh City.

It is Gary Jardine's side, ranked by most bookmakers no better than potential mid-table makeweights in the Lowland League this year, who have assumed pole position in the battle to reach the newly installed play-offs at the base of the Scottish senior game.

Should they capitalise on their convincing ascendancy in the table, they would first face a two-legged tie with the Highland League champions - at the moment, looking like Brora Rangers or Turiff United - then a showdown with the worst senior team in Scotland, at the last time of checking East Stirlingshire. Having been rebuffed with applications to fill a vacancy in the league twice since the turn of the millennium, Edinburgh City are nothing if not consistent.

With a couple of honourable exceptions - one is Ortega Deniran, an exotically-named Nigerian who once played in Champions League ties with Levski Sofia - what makes Edinburgh City's exploits even more impressive is that their squad is almost entirely comprised of local products from the youth ranks, none of whom have featured in the senior game before.

Joe Mbu, the central defender who won back-to-back promotions with Danny Lennon's Cowdenbeath side, is another man who bucks the trend. He was persuaded to join up this summer when he decided that he was fed up sitting in traffic. His commute from his banking job in the city centre to Methil on week nights was becoming unsustainable.

"I've loved every minute of it," Mbu told the Sunday Herald. "I was actually thinking of just giving up playing, I was so fed up with the travelling going back and forward. I was finishing work at 5 o'clock in the centre of Edinburgh and trying to get to East Fife for training at 6.15pm but it was absolutely impossible. Especially at rush hour it takes you at least 45 minutes to get to the Forth Bridge - if you are lucky.

"So I was just constantly being late for training and I don't like being late for anything," he added. "I had offers from teams but that would have involved travelling again but I've known Gary for years, since we played junior football. It has been a pleasure for me to be involved."

Edinburgh City applied to join the like back in 2002, then again in 2008 after the demise of Gretna. "I believe is a bit of a holy grail," said Mbu. "They have applied for entry every time there has been a vacancy. Spartans were the favourites at the start of the season, we were something like seventh. Everyone always talks about Spartans and I guess that is why no-one gave us any consideration but we don't really think about that."

The time Mbu spent at Cowdenbeath saw Danny Lennon, named this week as Scotland Under-21 manager, come to prominence, not to mention young players such as Darren McGregor, now at Rangers. Not many players get to record back-to-back promotions but the 33-year-old reckons that taking Edinburgh City into the Scottish senior ranks would run it close.

"I won promotion twice with Cowdenbeath but taking Edinburgh City up would compare massively," Mbu said. "That team that Danny had at Cowdenbeath, nobody gave us a chance. It is similar to what we are doing at Edinburgh City, where it is all about ethic. Most of the boys have been at Edinburgh City for six or seven years, so the vast majority of them haven't played any senior football at all, anbd there is a real hunger there. They have just grasped the opportunity.

"We are not counting our chickens yet but fingers crossed," he added. "To be honest the standard has been very good in this league this season. If we can tighten up a bit at set pieces I think it will be a really good test for us against Highland League teams."

Edinburgh City are limited by the likes of Hearts and Hibs when it comes to box office but it would be nice to think that, after years of trying, the SFA's attempts to install a pyramid along the Scottish model will gain traction this summer. "I think it should be one automatic promotion sport and one play off, but I guess that is just the way it is and we have to work hard to get into it," said Mbu. "We have got a great youth structure so hopefully that will only grow and maybe some more of the parents might start taking more of an interest."