Video: Elgin City look to shake off Hampden pain in vital League 2 encounter with Cowdenbeath
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KNOCKED out of the play-offs zone last weekend, Elgin City have the opportunity to bounce straight back in tomorrow.
City boss Gavin Price took his share of the blame for his team’s 2-0 defeat at Queen’s Park, which allowed the Glaswegians to jump above Elgin into fourth spot.
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But Price is urging his men to respond by beating Cowdenbeath tomorrow and potentially moving up two places to third.
Cowdenbeath were just a point off top spot a quarter of the way through this season, but just four wins in their last 14 league outings have dropped them off the pace.
They are just a point above Queen’s who visit Cove on Saturday. City are a further point back and facing their most important league game of the season.
“A favourable result means we will be in the top four again come Saturday,” said Price. “That’s the carrot that’s there on Saturday.
“I’ve said that Cowdenbeath is a team we’re probably going to have to catch at some point, so it’s an opportunity to do that.
“We just have to get over the disappointment of Saturday. We have definitely identified what went wrong and we will work on things this week to make sure we are better and more compact as a team.”
The manager brought Euan Spark back into his starting line-up at Hampden and pushed Archie Macphee into an attacking role.
“In retrospect I maybe made the wrong decision and just bringing Smart (Osadolor) in for Shane (Sutherland)was probably the one to make.
"We thought the big park at Hampden would suit our style with Archie further up but probably the conditions went against that decision and it became a different sort of game.
"Every manager in defeat can maybe reflect on things that they maybe have done wrong and the players can reflect on other areas of the game that we didn’t get quite right on Saturday.
"I am not blaming the conditions, I’m blaming how we’ve set up as a team and I think we didn’t get that right.
"I didn’t think there was an awful lot in the game, we missed chances when we could have scored.
"But in other games this season I’ve bemoaned our luck but with this one I don’t think we did enough to earn the result.
"I was happy to give Euan an hour in the game, In the conditions I didn’t want to risk him for any longer than that and I’m glad to see him come through it unscathed.
"It’s important for him to get these minutes under his belt and we can’t expect him to be back to full fitness straight away. I’m sure he’ll feature regularly between now and the end of the season."
Elgin's 25-goal striker Shane Sutherland tore his hamstring in the 3-0 win over Cove, but Price revealed the injury is not as bad as first feared.
"We are more positive with Shane than we first expected.
"He’s responding well to treatment and thought he certainly won’t be available this Saturday we are hoping to have him back in the following weeks. Maybe not this month but certainly early in March and perhaps the Stirling Albion game (on March 7).
"Andy McDonald has been training and it may take a bit for him to get back to fitness but it will be good to get him involved and he may make the bench on Saturday."
