Elgin City put up a gutsy fight at Dingwall
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ELGIN City's resistance against Championship favourites Ross County lasted an hour before they finally succumbed to relentless pressure in their Betfred Cup group opener in Dingwall.
Gavin Price's side put up a dogged and disciplined performance but the slick passing and movement of a County side relegated last season from the Scottish Premiership eventually wore them down.
Declan McManus broke the deadlock with a close range effort on 60 minutes after some superb build up play by County around the box.
And the points were confirmed with nine minutes remaining when sub Josh Mullin fired in from the edge of the box.
The full-time side dominated possession from the start of the game and were a threat throughout the game.
However, Elgin City's new 3-5-2 formation withheld anything County could throw at them.
Central defenders Stephen Bronsky, Matthew Cooper and Darryl McHardy produced some solid defending to get a foot or a head in front of everything.
And when they were breached, keeper Kyle Gourlay, playing his first competitive game for City following his loan move from Dundee, pulled off some good stops, including a fantastic point blank save from a McManus header five minutes before the break.
Michael Gardyne was a constant threat with his pace and he also saw a first half effort well saved by Gourlay.
Elgin needed more composure on the rare occasions when they got the ball and more often than not gave away possession cheaply.
However, they retained their shape and discipline and frustrated County in the opening half.
It was one way traffic from the restart and the goal finally came when some neat inter-passing around the Elgin box saw the ball worked to McManus at the edge of the six yard box and he stabbed the ball home.
City made three second half changes with Ryan Farquhar (60), Kerr Hay(73) and Moray Taylor (87) coming on for Declan Byrne, Chris McLeish and David Banjo respectively.
After Mulling had fired in the second goal for the home side, County sub David Keillor-Dunn rattled the post with a great strike late on.
Elgin's only effort on goal came in the 89th minute when Hay's shot was high and wide.
Bronsky had to be helped off with what looked like ankle ligament damage deep into injury time after a heroic performance at the heart of City's three man defence.
Elgin manager Gavin Price said: "They stuck to their task really well and frustrated Ross County for long spells.
"We are only three weeks into our season. I was really pleased with the effort of the team and they defended well. We acquitted ourselves well against a full-time team."
And defender Matthew Cooper added: "These are the games we want to test ourselves in against higher opposition.
"I feel we put in a good shift. It was a big step up coming here against the full-time boys and they will be going for the championship.
"As a team we defended well and the shape was good. With them being full time the fitness came into it and they got a couple of goals."
Ross County: Fox, Fraser, Kelly, Morris, Draper, Gardyne (Mullin 73), Lindsay, McManus, Dow (McKay 70), Dingwall (Keillor-Dunn 82).
Elgin: Gourlay, Cooper, Lowdon, McHardy, Bronsky, McGovern, Banjo (Taylor 87), Millar, McLeish (Hay 73), Sutherland, Byrne (Farquhar 60).
