Elgin City manager Allan Hale “delighted” with players in Kelty Hearts display
WATCHING his 10-man Elgin City side come from a goal behind to secure a draw and penalty shoot-out success against higher-league opposition “delighted” Allan Hale.
Elgin showed their battling qualities to bounce back from a 30th-minute Jake Dolzanski red card and a Kelty Hearts goal on the stroke of half-time to equalise in a strong half.
Michael Dangana grabbed that leveller in the 70th minute and City went on to win 5-4 on spot kicks to secure two points.
Hale praised the quality of his side’s second half display. He said: “I said to the players at half-time that our body language had to be better. We were allowing the red card to affect us in a negative manner.
“I knew we had a few games on Kelty in terms of match practice and that we have speed in the team on the bench to come on. We made changes, were positive and all you need is one chance and thankfully we got it.
“I’m delighted for Danga (Michael Dangana) that he took it. It will do him the world of good in terms of his confidence.
“I’m delighted that we have then managed to win the shoot-out and gain the bonus point, because for their performance the boys merited that.
“It gives us a lot of encouragement that, not only can we defend well, but we have the speed in the team and can cause teams problems.
“We were over an hour with 10 men, including injury time, and I don’t think they had many chances so we have got to be pleased with that.”
Elgin travel to Peterhead tomorrow, before a visit to Glasgow to take on Queen’s Park on Tuesday night.
Despite having two points in the bag, meaning second place in the group is still possible, Hale admits that the League Cup is being treated as pre-season for City.
“It’s got to be treated as pre-season,” he said. “Trying to get time together on the training pitch has been really difficult.
“We have got to use this to try get everyone minutes and get everyone up to speed, and try to try different things tactically and formation-wise.
“We have played Peterhead a few times and it’s a squad littered with talent in every area of the pitch and they have a good, young management team who have done an excellent job.
“They had a great season last year and they will be looking to have a better one this season and go a step further. It will be a good gauge for us to see where we are.
“Then we have Queen’s Park on the Tuesday. We have to treat it as getting the group as fit as we can.”
Hale gave plaudits to the 473-strong crowd that turned out to support City on Tuesday.
“The crowd deserve plaudits,” he said. “They really got behind the team in the second half.
“When you are down to 10 men and feeling tired, the crowd can give you the extra five or 10 per cent you need and they did that.
“They could see what the players are putting in and that really inspired the players.”
