Elgin City 2 Forfar Athletic 0: First Borough Briggs league win since December gives Elgin huge boost in battle for SPFL safety
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Elgin City picked up their first league win in eight games and saw their relegation rivals all lose.
It was a great day for the Black and Whites as a strong first half performance earned a 2-0 win at home to promotion chasers Forfar Athletic.
Elgin’s interim management team named an almost unchanged starting line-up from Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Stenhousemuir.
Dylan Lawrence, who sustained a head injury after colliding with a post early in the midweek match, couldn’t play due to concussion laws and was replaced by Matt Jamieson who came on for him in the last game.
Kane Hester forced an easy save out of the Forfar keeper early on, and the Elgin top scorer looked in trouble moments later when he went down under a challenge and looked to be struggling as he limped around the field.
However, his pain turned to joy on nine minutes when he broke a five-game scoring drought with a fine opener.
Brian Cameron played a through ball in the centre and Hester advanced, outwited his marker to get on to his right foot and curl home a cracker from the edge of the box.
Borough Briggs was really bouncing ten minutes later when Elgin doubled their advantage.
Jamieson won possession and raced down the left before playing it across the six-yarder for Hester, whose sliding effort was saved by Marc McCallum but skidded across the danger area and Aaron Reid kept a cool head to roll the ball into the net for his second goal in two games.
Elgin were in full flow and McCallum had to palm away a looping ball from under his own bar before Darryl McHardy hit the side netting from an acute angle.
Hester had one effort blocked and another well saved by McCallum two minutes before the break following great work by Russell Dingwall on the left.
At the other end, Tom McHale in the Elgin goal had little to deal with in the first half as solid home defending gave the promotion-chasing visitors precious few openings.
Forfar had some renewed energy at the start of the second half and within 22 seconds Tom McHale was pushing aside a Craig Thomson volley - perhaps Forfar’s first sniff of the game.
When Finn Robson was allowed to break forward four minutes later and set up Thomson for a dangerous shot inches past the post, it served as a warning that victory had not been secured by the home team.
The good news for the home fans was that scoring opportunities for both teams dried up after that.
Elgin defended resolutely and three bodies on the line, Owen Cairns demonstrating that with a vital block in the penalty area, before Forfar’s Mark Docherty curled just past.
Sub Mitch Taylor forced a save with a late free kick as the home nerves eased in the closing moments.
With Albion, Bonnyrigg and Stranraer all losing, it was a great day at the office for City and a huge lift in their battle for league safety.
Elgin: McHale; Mailer, Draper, McHardy, Cairns; Dingwall, Cameron, MacEwan (Allen 82); Reid (Findlay 66), Hester, Jamieson (Taylor 75).
Subs: Cooper, Hayllar, Abrahams, Hoban.
Forfar: McCallum; Gillies, Munro, Dunachie, Docherty; Thomson (Flanagan 67), Slater (Ross 37), Robson, Brindley; Armour, McCluskey (Aitken 67).
Subs: Hutton, Kennedy.
Referee: Greg Soutar
Att: 756
