A recent revival in Elgin City’s fortunes came to a grinding halt on Saturday when the Borough Briggs side lost out at home to Queens Park.
Elgin had opened the scoring on the second minute when a Daniel Moore free-kick from the right wing was headed home by defender Ally Gilchrist. The sun was out in Elgin for the whole of the match – but it also played a major part in Queen’s Park’s equalizer.
A Bryan Wharton throw-in caused havoc in the Elgin box and Mark Nicholson, blinded by the sun, was the victim of an unfortunate own goal as the ball bounced of his head and looped past goalkeeper Laidlaw.
After the break Elgin had a penalty claim after Craig Thomson went down in the box but the referee was unmoved.
Another throw-in proved to Elgin’s downfall. Vincent Berry’s throw was not cleared by the City defence and the ball fell to Paul Woods in the box who smashed it across the face of goal for substitute Jordan Moore to tap home the winner in the last minute.
It is a defeat that puts a severe dent in Elgin’s growing hopes of reviving a troubled season and slipping into a promotion play-off spot.
City manager Jim Weir was left bitterly disappointed: “Obviously disappointing losing the game, especially when you go a goal in front but we’ve paid the price for two defensive errors.
“But we’ve just got to take our medicine, lick our wounds and get ready for Tuesday.”
The former St Johnstone and Hamilton defender felt his side could have taken a point from the game, adding: “I definitely thought they were the better side. I did not feel we extended to levels that we’ve reached over the last few months but as the game went on, I thought that we’d see it out and get a point out of it.”
On the penalty claim at a point when the game was finely balance, the City manager said: “Whether or not today‘s incident was a penalty or not, we’ve had five given against us on the trot and they haven’t been too kind to us so you just look for a bit of consistency.
“I felt that we didn’t get a fair share of the decisions on the far side. I also thought there was a handball in the lead up to the winning goal but that’s something you’ve just got to deal with.”
(Reporter: Lewis Wiles)