FOUR dropped points from a second straight 2-2 draw left Elgin City manager Ross Jack frustrated, rather than furious at his team.
The Black and Whites blew a 2-0 lead at Clyde in midweek and were twice in front against Annan before having to settle for a point.
Victory would have put City on top of Division 3, but Jack felt his team was unlucky not to win against a stubborn Annan.
“We had long, long periods of pressure and we really should have won for all our dominance,” Jack said after the match.
Jamie Duff and Craig Gunn had twice headed City in front in the first half but each time they were pegged back as a brace by Queen of the South loan teenager David Hopkirk earned the visitors a share of the spoils.
“We’ve probably not been clinical enough but I’m not angry with the boys. I’m just frustrated for them.
“We had a great opportunity to go clear at the top if we had won our last two matches.
“But to be up on the same points as Rangers after the first quarter of the season, who would have thought that at the start?”
Duff repeated his midweek goal by nodding in a Daniel Moore cross for City’s opener on the half hour.
Hopkirk levelled with a good solo effort four minutes later, only for Gunn to latch onto strike partner Stuart Leslie’s header to nod Elgin back in front on 38 minutes.
Slack marking allowed Annan to level within a minute of the start of the second half as Hopkirk’s volley found the net.
Elgin thought they had a good penalty shout when Leslie went down in the box, and called rough justice when Sean Crighton had a volleyed goal disallowed for a marginal offside decision.
Leslie had a shot brilliantly touched on to the post by the Annan keeper, with Gunn’s follow-up blocked by a last ditch defensive clearance.
But just as he did at Clyde on Wednesday, Elgin keeper John Gibson made a superb save right at the death to prevent his team from sliding to defeat.
There was a further blow for the Moray men when skipper David Niven hobbled off with a swollen knee, an injury which could keep him out of next weekend’s trip to Montrose.
Elgin: Gibson, Niven (McLean 22), McMullan (Millar 79), Crighton, Duff, Cameron, Gunn, Beveridge, Leslie, Nicolson, Moore. Subs: Harkins, MacLeod, Black.
See Friday’s Northern Scot for the latest Borough Briggs news.
