Elgin City assistant Stefan Laird praises ‘excellent’ second-half show in Spartans draw
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ELGIN City’s assistant manager Stefan Laird praised his players’ second-half performance as they battled to a 2-2 draw with Spartans at Borough Briggs.
City trailed at half-time against the Edinburgh side thanks to Blair Henderson’s goal, but long-range efforts from Brian Cameron and Ryan MacLeman saw the game turned on its head before the hour mark.
REPORT: City pick up hard-fought point against Spartans
Henderson grabbed his second from the penalty spot after an award that Laird said was “obviously not a penalty”.
While he took issue with the awarding of that spot-kick, Laird added that a point apiece was a fair result - and that he was delighted with his side’s performance after half-time.
“We were poor in the first half so to come back and put in the second-half performance that we did, I thought it was a really good point,” he said.
“The boys were excellent second half. We created plenty of chances and scored two fantastic goals.
“On the balance of the game, a point is probably a fair result. Obviously it’s not a penalty, but some go for you and some go against you. We have had an opportunity to clear the ball twice and haven’t done, so we allowed ourselves to go into that situation.
“We spoke to the linesman and the referee and they agreed there is no contact with the feet and it was body to body. Quite what the defender is supposed to do in that scenario when the attacker runs into him, I’m not sure. His arms weren’t out, his legs weren’t out. I think everybody is of the same opinion.
“But Spartans had some other chances where they should have scored when we let them in, so we have no complaints with 2-2. It’s definitely a point gained.”
The win moves Elgin up one place to sixth in the League Two table, six points clear of bottom club Stranraer - who fell below Clyde after losing 1-0 to the Bully Wee.
“If you had given us the opportunity when we took this job to have our own fate in our hands and be sitting sixth with four games to go we would have bitten your hand off,” Laird added.
“We might not have bitten your hand off four weeks ago, but when we took the job we would have.
“The boys were excellent second half and they have got to continue that for the next four games because it will be a real fight down there and there will be a few surprises in store, I’m sure.
“We are trying to push up the league and not concentrate on what is going down.
“We are sitting sixth and we should be looking to stay there - that will be the aim for the boys.
“We have got the champions and then two play-off teams before Clyde come here, and I think we would all rather it was done and dusted before that.”
Next up for Elgin is a trip to Stenhousemuir, who were confirmed as league champions today.
There are injury concerns for the Black and Whites, who had just five substitutes today, with Michael Dangana and Lyall Booth hobbling off injured.
The early hope is that Booth’s injury is an impact one, while Dangana will be assessed after feeling his calf go in the first half.
Laird added: “We can’t emphasise enough that we really are down to the bare bones.
“We had five on the bench today, of which three are fit. Drapes (Ross Draper) went on and he is not fully fit.
“Hopefully Dayshonne (Golding) will return to training this week, but we will need to see where he is when he gets back onto the training pitch.
“Freddy (Jeffreys) and Rory (MacEwan) are out for the season and Coops (Matthew Cooper) is unlikely to play this season and if he does it will certainly be near the end.
On the trip to newly-crowned champions Stenny, he added: “You can look at them being crowned champions two ways: you can either say that they will hopefully all jet off all over the world in celebration this week, not train, come back drunk and then play the game! But I highly doubt with Gary (Naysmith) in charge that will happen.
“They are a really good team and there are not many teams that go there and win.
“But last time we went down we were really good. We will have to be organised because they have some good individual threats, but I feel we can cause them some problems.
“I feel we can cause all the teams in the league problems. We have just got to concentrate on getting the next point on the board and that will be the same when we go down there.”
