Elgin City won’t give up on the William Hill League 2 title despite three consecutive defeats but what points total could be required to lift the trophy or finish in the top four and make the League 1 play-offs?
Elgin City haven’t yet given up on their first SPFL title, but the play-offs look a more realistic route.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Edinburgh City - see pictures below - was the Moray club’s third consecutive league loss, bucking the trend of a progressive campaign bolstered by strong Borough Briggs form.
It represents significant strides forward this term in comparison to recent scrapes close to the bottom of League 2.
Elgin have led the division on occasions this term, and while Saturday’s defeat saw them slip to fourth they have everything to play for over the remaining 11 games of their regulation season.
So what points total could Allan Hale’s side need to keep their title hopes burning bright, or to finish in the top four and make the play-offs?
This is the Black and Whites’ 25th season in the SPFL and their best year to date was under Jim Weir’s management in 2015-16.
That campaign saw City go head-to-head with current League 2 leaders East Fife, grabbing first place in the new year and still being out in front in early March, before some stuttering results saw them finish three points behind the Methil men, who clinched the league flag.
East Fife managed 62 points that season, a total that remains the lowest to win Scotland’s fourth tier in the quarter-of-a-century where Elgin have been in the league.
The Black and Whites’ current tally of 40 points is some 22 short of the Fifers’ 2015-16 title mark, and it’s likely that something closer to 70 points will be needed to secure the silverware this term.
As for making the play-offs, Elgin are seven points ahead of fifth-placed Stirling right now, though might view Spartans in sixth spot as the team to watch over the rest of the campaign.
The Edinburgh outfit sit eight behind Elgin with a game in hand tonight against bottom side Forfar Athletic, and Spartans also visit Borough Briggs on league business on a Tuesday night in two weeks time.
The promotion play-offs were first introduced 20 years ago and the lowest points total to make the top four in the fourth tier is the 49 achieved by Berwick Rangers in 2012-13 - the season when Glasgow Rangers won Division 3.
Elgin are at present nine points short of that total with 11 to play, whereas the highest tally required to get into the top four was in 2006-07 when East Fife had to battle hard to reach the play-offs in a fiercely contested campaign.
Should Elgin make the play-offs this season, it would be the fourth time they managed to do so.
Jim Weir’s 2015-16 squad were the best of the bunch, albeit failing to get beyond the semi-finals after losing both legs to Clyde.
Four years earlier under Ross Jack’s management, City achieved what at the time was their best SPFL points total of 57, just two less than what Weir’s side managed in their ding-dong battle with East Fife.
Yet 57 points was only enough in 2012 to manage fourth spot behind champions Alloa, Queen’s Park and Stranraer.
That meant Elgin playing Albion Rovers, who finished second-bottom in Division 2 and survived a Borough Briggs bombardment in the first leg to escape with a 1-0 defeat, before winning the second leg 2-0 thanks to a last-minute strike that broke the hearts of a big travelling support in Coatbridge.
Elgin’s third visit to the play-offs can’t really draw any points comparisons, as it came during the Covid-hit 2020-21 half-season.
The ten clubs kicked off in October and played each other once, home and away over 18 fixtures, before the league split in two halves for four more fixtures to determine who finished in the top four and made the play-offs.
Elgin, who looked dead-certs to make the play-offs in the previous season until the pandemic halted proceedings, ended up third after 22 games, level on 38 points with second-placed Edinburgh City, who they would meet in the semi-finals.
A 1-0 home defeat in the first leg, with current Hibs star Josh Campbell scoring, gave an Elgin team managed by Gavin Price with a mountain to climb.
Black and Whites fans unable to attend due to coronavirus watched the second leg in the capital online and saw Darryl McHardy twice head Elgin into the lead, but that man Campbell again struck in the final minute with a sensational long-range blast to make the Moray club beaten semi-finalists for the third time.
