Elgin City head to Stirling Albion in League 2, eager to bring their losing run to an end
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FOUR straight wins kicked off Elgin’s season, now Gavin Price wants his team to avoid five defeats in a row.
City exited the Betfred Cup on Saturday after a 3-0 defeat at Arbroath and a performance which manager Price said fell below the standards he expected.
He is urging his players to return to the form they produced last month, when they won their first two cup games and convincingly triumphed in the opening two league encounters.
Since then, the Black and Whites have lost two tough League Two clashes against Edinburgh and Queen’s Park, and been beaten by higher league Ross County and Arbroath in the cup.
A visit to Stirling Albion tomorrow gives Elgin a chance to return to winning ways.
“We have had four difficult games where I don’t think we’ve been the favourite in any of them,” said Price.
“All that shows is that it’s gone with the bookies, if you like. But we are disappointed not to have anything from these games. We’ve got another difficult one coming up, as Stirling are a decent side who are unbeaten in the league and beat Montrose last week so it will be tough.
“We need to get back to what we were doing earlier in the season and hopefully we will do that.”
City had played well for 45 minutes in their loss to Ross County, but the same couldn’t be said for their display against Championship side Arbroath.
A first-half David Gold double put Elgin on the back foot and they never threatened to recover, conceding a third goal near the end.
“It was an opportunity to progress and we didn’t take it, unfortunately,” Price said.
“So I was left with a bit of frustration at our performance.
“It was a one-off game to try and get through to the last 16 and I felt we had more to offer than what they gave on Saturday. It was always a big ask to win the game, but I was confident we would have a good go and we are frustrated that didn’t happen.”
Elgin will be without suspended top scorer Kane Hester at Stirling, while Conor O’Keefe will be assessed after picking up an injury in training.
“When Kane was suspended before, Josh Peters came in not fully fit against Montrose and got a goal so there’s a chance he could play. He came on and did well again on Saturday and hasn’t been far away, regardless of who’s been available,” he said.
Price hinted that other team changes could be made, and assessed friendly games against Strathspey and Rothes this week.
