It was a case of another missed opportunity for Elgin City when they were held to a home draw at Borough Briggs on Saturday.
Report: Lewis Wiles
On a day when promotion play-off rivals East Fife were beaten there was a clear chance for Elgin to close the gap – they did so by a single point, but assistant boss Gavin Price insists the side will need to grab at least eight more from their remaining four league encounters.
After what was ultimately a disappointing afternoon Price said: “I thought that we definitely had the better of the chances.
“On another day, we would have won the game. We had a few good chances and what’s disappointing for me is that we haven’t put one or two of these away. I thought we deserved to win the game.”
Opponents East Stirlingshire arrived in Moray having won three of their last four matches – included a 2-1 win over Elgin last month, leaving Price in no doubt of the quality they faced: “East Stirling are a very hard team to play against.
“They’re on a fantastic run so we were under no illusions that today’s game was going to be very difficult. They don’t concede a lot of goals and they’re well organized. We knew today was going to be a battle.”
The draw leaves Elgin two points off the play-off places and Price has a points target that he believes is enough to make the play-offs at the end of the season.
“I thought before today that 52 points would be enough to get us into the play-offs but, with how other results have gone today, that might have gone down to about 50 points. We need to be looking winning all of our remaining games and see where that takes us.”
After a bright start Elgin had the first chance of the game when Shane Sutherland found himself through on goal but lacked composure and blasted the ball over the bar. Sutherland then missed another glorious chance for City as Shire failed to deal with a Brian Cameron cross, the ball fell to Sutherland six yards out who side-footed volley flew just over the woodwork.
East Stirlingshire had a chance of their own as Maxwell Wright wriggled his way into the box and played a low cross into the path of striker David McKenna who failed to hit the target.
After the break, Elgin withstood Stirlingshire pressure and almost grabbed a late winner when Mark Nicholson got on the end of a Daniel Moore corner but his effort was straight at the goalkeeper.
The draw keeps Elgin’s Play-off dreams alive with the Black ‘n Whites hot on the tails of East Fife, who Elgin meet on the last day of the season.
City midfielder Brian Cameron believes his side should have walked away with all three points on Saturday after a frustrating goal-less draw against East Stirlingshire.
He said: “In the first half I think we edged it – we created a good few chances and we’re disappointed not to take any but both teams had chances in the second half.”
“We didn’t win today but it was massive for us not to lose. We have to capitalise on our home games but, saying that, other results have went our way and we would have taken the position we’re in now before the game.
“We were disappointed that we could win and capitalise on other results.”