Jack was dismayed when Borough Briggs failed a 10.30am inspection on Tuesday and that night's clash with Division 3 rivals Stranraer was cancelled.

He said a frosty section of the park soon thawed out in the spring sunshine, and within a matter of hours the surface was in ideal condition for a match.

"The pitch was absolutely perfect and playable by mid-afternoon. The inspection was far too early," complained the City boss.

"I was so angry and frustrated because 90% of it was frost-free even at the time of the inspection, and given another couple of hours the whole pitch would have been playable.

"If there was any danger to the players I would not have wanted to play, but it was no worse than a firm park you might get in midsummer, and you are never going to get games called off then."

Two weeks ago, when Elgin's match against Queen's Park was postponed at Friday lunchtime, Jack admitted Borough Briggs was fine 24 hours later. He has now seen nine fixtures, including five at home, fall by the wayside since mid-December.

He believes the late cancellation of the original Stranraer fixture on December 19, when it was called off just 30 minutes before kick-off, was a factor in the Scottish League needing an earlier decision to be made this time. But he believes there should be a compensation scheme to cover fixtures which fall victim to a late change in the weather.

"Stranraer were not prepared to wait any longer for a decision and I can understand that after what happened last time. We would maybe feel the same travelling down there, and it's not easy to find a compromise.

"Maybe some form of compensation could be made available - certainly something needs to be done to get more games played when they can."

With City on midweek duty for the next five Tuesdays the earliest date they can rearrange the Stranraer match is on April 13.

Jack now hopes his players will take out their frustration at Tuesday's postponement on this weekend's visitors Livingston.

The Moray men will have taken some confidence from last Saturday's battling 3-3 draw at Annan, but their manager knows it will be much tougher against Livi, the division's leaders and 6-1 victors the last time they visited Borough Briggs.

But apart from banned defender David Niven, Elgin are at full strength for the match and Jack insists the mauling they received from the 'Lions' in November is long forgotten.

Paul Kaczan (right) holds off an attack by Annan Athletic's Lewis Sloan during Saturday's 3-3 draw at Galabank. RC

"We deserved a point both times we played them away, and were beaten only by late goals. They are a strong side but we won't be playing a defensive game against them, we'll have a real go and we'll be going for a victory."

Jack said he has little doubt Livi, currently seven points clear at the top, are a "safe bet" to win the title, but is determined to halt their powerful surge this weekend.

And he has called for his men to cut out the defensive errors which marred an otherwise good performance at Annan a week earlier.

"We basically gave Annan their three goals, we didn't clear our lines and it was looking very bleak for us at 3-1 down. But I always believed we could come back, and if they game had went on for just another couple of minutes we might even have sneaked it.

"Against Livingston, we will need to tighten things up, but I'm certain we can pose them plenty problems."

Jack has left star striker Craig Gunn on the bench for the last two games, and though he has had injury and illness problems, the manager said it was more of a tactical ploy.

Craig has been just tremendous for us this season, and I'm sure he's frustrated to be on the sidelines - I'd be disappointed if he wasn't.

"But I have picked a team to play a certain way and used Craig from the bench to make an impact later in the match, which he has done to great effect."

Loan striker Shane Sutherland is the new goalscoring hero in the side, and was hailed by Jack as an "exceptional" 19-year-old who is finally adding goals to his industrious lead-up play.

He added that recent signing David Smith, who netted Elgin's equaliser in stoppage time, may soon be giving him selection worries of the right kind if he continues to impress from the bench.

David Craig junior returns from RAF duty to join the squad this weekend.

c.christie@northern-scot.co.uk

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