Kane Hester double gives Elgin City victory over Scottish Cup giantkillers Kelty Hearts
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ELGIN City slayed the giant slayers by producing their best performance of the season to defeat Kelty Hearts.
A terrific Kane Hester double took the Black and Whites to victory over the League 2 leaders, who had beaten cup holders St Johnstone only days earlier.
Every home player put in an incredible shift for a thoroughly deserved win to extend City's unbeaten run to six games.
A Kelty side still on a high from their famous victory over Saints looked to dictate play in the early stages but Elgin looked well-organised in dealing with anything coming into their defensive third.
The first sniff of a scoring opportunity didn’t arrive until the 17th minute when a Michael Tidser free kick was met by Kelty centre back Thomas O’Ware but home keeper Tom McHale dealt with his header.
Four minutes later a Kallum Higginbotham corner from the right was met by a Jordan Forster header across goal but it skimmed off the top of Nathan Austin’s head and off target.
The league leaders had plenty possession and Jamie Barjonas’ midfield runs were causing concern but McHale had little to deal with.
City’s confidence grew as the half wore on and their high pressing game gave Kelty plenty to think about.
Nine minutes before the break, the home side opened the scoring.
Darryl McHardy crafted a ball down the left channel for Kane Hester who used his pace to get into the box and cut across before firing in a low shot which took a nick and beat Darren Jamieson inside the right hand post.
It was nearly 2-0 when Hester chipped an Evan Towler pass into the path of Tony Dingwall who took a touch and struck across Jamieson, who got down to palm it away.
Elgin were just about worth their interval lead and set about trying to add to it a minute after the restart.
Impressive Aberdeen loan teenager Towler broke down the left and slipped a pass to Hester, whose first time ball found Russell Dimgwall and his snapshot forced Jamieson to make another diving save at the expense of a corner.
Kelty had made a double change at half time with Ross Philp and Alfredo Agyeman adding energy to a visiting side perhaps feeling the effects of their Scottish Cup exploits.
New life was breathed into the visiting challenge with Elgin forced to retreat deeper into their own territory than they would have liked.
Counter-attacks were City’s best option and one breakaway on 69 minutes led to Towler playing in a diagonal ball to the back post which Rory MacEwan narrowly missed on the stretch.
But that second goal did arrive 15 minutes from time and it was the same combination that unlocked the leaders.
McHardy played the ball forward and Hester tormented and beat Forster, cut inside a second man and fired into the bottom corner for a superb solo effort.
Into the last ten minutes, Elgin kept pushing and sub Josh Peters picked pout Angus Mailer who fired over at full stretch.
Hester went off to a standing ovation in stoppage time, with a late MacEwan blast going over from distance.
No-one in the home crowd really cared as their team comfortably held on for a vital three points in their mission to reach the promotion play-offs.
Elgin: McHale; Mailer, Spark, Draper, McHardy, Towler; R Dingwall, MacEwan, Omar (Peters 64), T Dingwall (Hanratty 80); Hester (Allen 90)
Subs: El-Zubaidi, Machado, Hoban.
Kelty: Jamieson; McNab (Agyeman 46), O’Ware (Finlayson 82), Forster, Ngewnya; Black (Philp 46), Tidser, McNab; Cardle (Biabi 70), Barjonas, Higginbotham; Austin.
Subs: Peggie, Hooper, Donaldson.
Referee: D McFarlane
Att: 531
