Price pride - Elgin City manager Gavin Price assesses how far his team has come over past two years
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PROUD Elgin City manager Gavin Price says his team has achieved a lot in the past two years despite missing out on promotion again.
An 88th minute Edinburgh City goal condemned Elgin to a 3-2 aggregate defeat in the League 1 play-off semi-finals on Tuesday.
Price’s men lost the first leg 1-0 at Borough Briggs but led 2-1 in the capital and were chasing a winner when Josh Campbell’s wonder strike snatched victory.
“I can only applaud the players,” he said. “They went right to the wire and I was so, so proud to be their manager.
“They’ve had 16 games in eight weeks, travelling here, there and everywhere and with the pressure that has been on them at times, to win games like they did was a fantastic effort.
“There’s no easy way to take a defeat like this, it’s going to be hard for a few days for everybody.
“But when the dust settles, we’ve got to look at where we are and how far we’ve come.
“Over the last two years, it’s two third-place finishes and some amazing results in cup football beating the Dundee, Airdrie and Alloa away from home.
“The squad should be really proud of what they have achieved and want to go further now. We have the bulk of the squad signed and one or two targets which can hopefully take us on to the next level.”
Tuesday’s result was all the more difficult a pill to swallow for the Elgin manager as his team had looked the better team on the night.
“Edinburgh had a good spell and we were up against it for a spell but we came right back into it and I thought we were the team that was looking more likely to score the next goal.
“That’s why we gambled slightly in bringing a second striker on. I really felt the game was there to be won and I wanted to be positive. I wouldn’t change that, we just made game management error with two minutes to go and we will just look at that and learn from it.”
Price feels Elgin as a club has grown during the past year through all the interruptions.
“It’s been a fantastic effort by everyone associated with the club.
"The directors, the staff, Keiran (Carty) and everything that has been done to allow us to be prepared for games - it’s been a real club effort.”
