WATCH: Darryl McHardy sparks wild celebrations with a last minute equaliser for ten-man Elgin City against Stenhousemuir - but says the Black and Whites were fortunate to steal a point
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DARRYL McHardy’s last minute equaliser sparked Borough Briggs scenes of joy, but the goal hero says his goal masked a poor team performance.
The defender nodded home a Russell Dingwall free kick in the 90th minute to earn ten-man Elgin a 2-2 draw against Stenhousemuir, who had led 2-0.
“It was an important goal but on a more serious note, it was not good enough from us today,” he said.
“I can say that for everyone, myself included. From the goalkeeper down to the strikers, not one of us passed any good standard, in my opinion.
“We were down to ten men and it just shows what can happen with a bit of belief. But why didn’t we have that throughout the whole game?
“It took one person getting sent off to get that reaction.
“We almost snatched it after that, we had a couple of chances so we could have won it, not deservedly though.
“We just need to buck up our ideas and get back to playing the way we know we can.
“We have to use this as some kind of a springboard now.”
Manager Gavin Price said after the match: “I just think we need to get back to basics now.
“Maybe we’ve been tinkering with the team too much and changing how we play.
“Well done to the players for getting us out of that situation that we were in but there’s a lot of work to do in terms of the performance.
“It’s gone backwards for me, from where we were two or three weeks ago to these last two games.
“The character is there definitely, and perversely we are still in touching distance with fourth place so we’ve got to look at that and start taking advantages in games, and I’m sure we will.”
Cove Rangers loanee Ross Draper was making his home debut for Elgin and only his third appearance in an injury-hit loan spell.
Captain Euan Spark returned from suspension and there was a recall to the starting line-up for Aidan Sopel and Tony Dingwall.
Stenhousemuir’s Ross Forbes picked up one of the quickest bookings of the season, hauling back Aidan Sopel in full flight to earn a yellow in under three minutes.
The visitors broke on ten minutes with Thomas Orr looking offside when he picked up a through ball to run on and clip the ball wide of keeper Tom McHale but also well wide of the goal.
Stenny hit Elgin with a double whammy before the midway mark in the first half.
Firstly Michael Miller’s 25 yard attempt took a deflection and looped over McHale to put the Warriors ahead on 17 minutes.
Then slack home defending saw Orr presented with the ball on the edge of the six yarder and he calmly slotted home.
Elgin were offering little attacking threat, with Spark’s miscued looping drive from a Russell MacEwan free kick their first effort on target after 34 minutes.
The home side were thrown a lifeline eight minutes before the break when Kane Hester charged through and was tripped by Ross Lyon for a penalty, which Hester converted himself.
City had their tails up and Tony Dingwall produced a nice turn and shot which keeper David Wilson saved well on 41 minutes.
Stenny had the first chance of the second half on 53 minutes when Darren Christie raced down the right and his cross was deflected on to the far post before Euan O’Reilly couldn’t turn in the rebound.
The home side had a real let-off just after the hour when Stenny’s Darren Christie beat the offside trap on a Ross Lyon pass only to curl inches wide with just McHale to beat.
Then O’Reilly got poor contact on a back post header from a Christie cross and Elgin were able to clear the danger.
City were struggling to create anything and McHardy’s 35-yard free kick was their next effort on goal 15 minutes from time, but Wilson saved comfortably.
McHardy curled another setpiece over, but the home side’s challenge took a real hit when Tom Grivosti was sent off for a last man challenge on O’Reilly with ten minutes to go.
But just when time was slipping away, Spark won a free kick on the right after 90 minutes and even keeper McHale entered the opposing penalty area to try and do his bit.
Russell Dingwall played the ball over and McHardy met it with a forthright header which evaded the diving Wilson and nestled just inside the right hand post, sparking scenes of joy for the home side.
Elgin: McHale; Grivosti, Draper (O’Keefe 55), McHardy; Spark, MacEwan, R Dingwall, Cooper; T Dingwall (Wilson 55), Sopel (Mailer 66); Hester.
Subs: Peters, Machado, Cooney, Allen, Lawrence, Hoban.
Stenny: Wilson; Corbett, Crighton, Tapping (Coll 63), R Lyon; Miller (Tierney 86), Wedderburn; Christie (Anderson 86), Forbes, O’Reilly; Orr (J Lyon 31)
Subs: Graham, Brown, Marshall.
Ref: Stewart Luke
Att: 518
