Elgin City manager Gavin Price says he is confident the Borough Briggs club will avoid a relegation battle and says he is the man to steer them to safety
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GAVIN Price says he has full confidence in his ability to steer Elgin City away from relegation – or else he would quit as Borough Briggs boss.
A 2-0 defeat at bottom club Cowdenbeath last week raised City supporters’ fears of dropping back down to the Highland League.
The Black and Whites have 10 games left to prove they are too good to finish last in League Two and face a play-off with the Highland or Lowland League winners.
Manager Price says he takes full responsibility for his team’s lowly position, but insists he is the man to guide them to safety.
“I’m 100 per cent confident in my ability and if I wasn’t, I would walk away because the most important thing for me is Elgin staying in the league,” he insisted.
“I’m confident I’m the right person to make sure that happens and that the players in the dressing room are the right players that can get us out of it.
“We are going through a bad spell. It’s tough, things have not gone with us but the only answer is to keep working hard and keep believing in ourselves and be brave now and make sure that we stand up in games.
“The bulk of that squad is definitely up for the fight and if there’s anybody not up for it, they won’t be involved.”
Price has released defender Aldin El-Zubaidi from his contract and hinted that he might not be the only departure this week, but is also looking to bring in new faces.
With captain Euan Spark and fellow defender Ross Draper struggling with injury and set to miss tomorrow’s home match against Stirling Albion, Price brought in another Cove Rangers loan player in centre back Jevan Anderson this week.
His efforts to bolster his attacking options faltered this week, as a three-week pursuit of St Johnstone winger Max Kucheriavyi was ended when Kelty Hearts stepped in to sign the player for the rest of the season.
An attempt to bring in another striker also failed though the City boss is still exploring loan options in time for Saturday.
“We will be trying this week and maybe shake up the squad a little bit. It’s important now, I would rather have a smaller group of players that going into these fixtures are desperate to fight for the cause,” he said.
“We’ve been trying to bring in a striker for a while and that hasn’t happened either.
“We will see if we can still get a wee spark that gives us something extra in front of goal.”
City’s social media has been peppered by messages from concerned fans, some predicting that their team is destined for the drop on current form while others have questioned Price’s future.
“It’s natural that the supporters are not going to be happy with the position we are in,” Price said. “I’ve got big enough shoulders and I deserve criticism when we have gone on this run,” he said.
“I’ll take the flak for that but I am also experienced enough to know I can turn this around.
“I’ve been at the club for this long and I’ve invested in the club in terms of the emotional side of things, so I would always do the right thing for the club.
“I believe the right thing for the club just now is to work hard and make sure that we start getting results again – and I’m pretty sure that we will.
“Results have turned against us, but it can easily flip around the other way.
“We have got a squad in there that is underperforming in terms of results but performances are not a million miles away. I don’t think luck has been on our side over the last few games but we just need to stick at it.
“Players go through dips like this, but I am confident that we will get it right.
“The first game is Stirling Albion and we’ve got to do our best to get into scoring positions, to take our chances. We had something like 17 shots on goal against Annan and we’ve not scored.
“It’s not good enough so we’ve just got to make sure we are clinical – and I’m sure we will be.
“We cannot panic. There’s 30 points to play for and we are capable in each of these games of winning every one of them.
“We are not looking too far ahead, we can only look at it game by game and try and get as many wins as we can.”
Top scorer Kane Hester managed just a 12-minute sub appearance last week due to a dead leg, but is set to return to the starting line-up against Stirling.
