Elgin City 1 Forfar Athletic 1: First Black and Whites goal for Lyall Booth but City have to settle for League 2 point
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Lyall Booth’s first goal for Elgin City wasn’t enough for victory as the Moray men had to settle for a point at home to Forfar.
Elgin boss Allan Hale had injury worries to contend with, losing on-loan Cove striker Dajon Golding to a hamstring injury while Ross Draper’s hamstring tweak saw him only fit for bench duty.
The Black and Whites kicked off with the strong wind in their favour but neither side found it easy to tame the conditions and chances were limited.
The first chance fell to City from a Russell Dingwall corner on 16 minutes which Freddy Jeffreys played back out to him, and a cross from the right was met by Jake Dolzanski’s acrobatic volley which flew wide of the target.
City made use of the wind when they scored the opening goal on 25 minutes.
Another Dingwall corner, this time on the left side, was shielded by Jeffreys into the path of left back Lyall Booth who progressed to fire a right foot drive from25 yards past helpless keeper Marc McCallum into the net.
Elgin looked to build on their lead but were stung just after the half hour when Craig Thomson’s snapshot from outside the box whistled low past Tom McHale into the corner of the net to level the scores.
Five minutes before the break, Jeffreys made a probing run through the centre and slipped a pass left to Michael Dangana, who cut back from the by-line and rifled a shot into the side netting.
The home side started the second half well against the wind and Jeffreys tested keeper Marc McCallum with a bouncing shot on 47 minutes.
From the resulting corner, Connall Ewan fired just wide.
There was a setback for City when Jeffreys pulled up with a hamstring strain and had to be replaced by Keith Bray.
Two minutes later it took a brilliant save by McCallum to palm away Dangana’s low curling effort.
Bray also came close with a deflected effort which looped up and on to the top of the net.
Forfar sub Daniel Scally tried his luck from fully 35 yards with a drive which took a nick and skimmed just over the target.
Eight minutes from time, an Elgin counter-attack resulted in Dingwall slipping in the overlapping Owen Cairns who rifled an angled effort across the goalmouth and just past the far post.
City looked the likelier team to grab a winner and came so close on 87 minutes when Dingwall made space for a curling shot which smacked off the base of the post.
In the end, the Black and Whites had to settle for the draw but didn’t lose ground on any pf the teams below them in the League 2 table.
Elgin: McHale, Cairns, Dolzanski, Ewan, Booth, Gallagher, Dingwall, Cameron, Jeffreys (Bray 54), Jones (Jamieson 83), Dangana (MacLeman 87).
Subs: Cooper, Taylor, Draper, Kelly.
Forfar: McCallum, Nditi, Hutchinson, Munro, M Allan, Morrison, Robson, Thomson (Scally 70), Whatley (Skelly 76), Ross (F Allan 70), Mohammed (McLean 76).
Subs: Moore, Inglis, Mykyta, Lobban, Paris.
Ref: Alastair Grieve
Att: 886
