Scottish Cup: Elgin City manager Gavin Price hopes Albion Rovers defeat will be lowest point of season and looks to bounce back against Clydebank on Monday
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MONDAY night Scottish Cup action will allow Elgin City manager Gavin Price to work with his squad this weekend in an effort to halt a slump in form.
City’s second round tie at Clydebank is live on BBC Scotland, with the Black and Whites expected to be without four loan players as well as star striker Kane Hester.
Price watched his side slip to second bottom spot in League Two on Saturday after a dismal display in the 2-0 defeat at Albion Rovers.
The Elgin boss is determined to make sure last week’s result was the lowest point of their campaign, and remains confident that their fortunes will turn soon.
He leads his entire squad on a full training session in Elgin tomorrow morning to iron out some of the problems he pinpointed in the Coatbridge defeat.
“We are lucky enough that we have three training sessions ahead of the next game where we can look to put things right and hopefully that can be a springboard towards an improved season,” he said.
“We will use Saturday as an extra training session for the full squad, get the south guys up and we will training in the morning and hopefully get things right, first and foremost for the Monday game. We don’t get many sessions together and in the past they have always been very worthwhile so hopefully we can use this period of time to work on what needs to be done.
"I’m 100 per cent confident that we have players who will start doing an awful lot better.
"We have been in positions like this before and we need to make sure that this is the lowest point and we don’t get lower than this.
"It’s important that we focus now. We had a good chat about it on Saturday and this week at the yoga with the whole squad together, and we know what we all need to do.
Price handed a debut to Cove Rangers loan midfielder Ross Draper at Albion, and a first start for Falkirk striker Jaime Wilson.
"It was good to get Ross half a game, we had to decide whether we were going to bring him on and give him half an hour or try to start him and see what we could get.
"He got through the first half and possibly could have played a bit more but I don’t think we would have got much more out of him.
"To be honest we had fallen out of the game and I thought I would use the opportunity to make a more attacking substitution. It backfired on us a little, we certainly lost his presence but we were trying to be more positive in the game because it was starting to slip from us and it didn’t work out for us.
"There were too many players under par for us on Saturday."
The manager will know by today if can play Wilson, Draper and fellow loanees Tom Grivosti and Nathan Cooney at Clydebank, but it seems unlikely that their parent clubs would want the players to be cup-tied when they return from Elgin in January.
"I need to plan for Monday’s game but there’s a squad there to choose from and everybody will need to be ready."
Price revealed that top scorer Hester is working with a strength and conditioning coach and making some progress in his recovery from a leg strain.
"It’s difficult to say what happens next and whether or not it has cured him.
"We need to be mindful and careful that we don’t push him back too soon but he is doing some good work with his coach who had been working him three, four, five times a week, so he is working hard from the reports we’ve had and making good progress.
.“I think you will be looking into November when we see him back."
Matthew Cooper is back in training, with Price reluctant to throw him into competitive matches too early, given that the player hasn’t played since August.
"He is back training twice last week and has another three sessions ahead of Monday so that is quite positive.
"There’s been no reaction as yet, he’s been through quite a lot and his match fitness is going to be quite a bit off so I would rather get a friendly for him first, but we will not get the opportunity to do that.
"It might be too soon to throw him in against Clydebank but we will wait and see how he gets on this week."
Price has had Clydebank watched and is wary of the strengths they possess and the danger that will bring to Elgin.
"It is going to be a frantic, 100 mile an hour game.
"They have some very good players particularly in the midfield and forward areas so by no means is it going to be a straightforward cup tie, it’s going to be difficult.
"It will be a full house and on the TV, so it's a big game for Clydebank because of their history but it is equally as big a game for us from where we are at the moment in terms of our form and the fact that it is important for Elgin to get through to the next round of the cup."
