Elgin City bring back-to-back William Hill League Two victories into ‘six cup finals’ starting with visit to Bonnyrigg Rose’s New Dundas Park bogey ground
Elgin City are “six cup finals” away from reaching the League 1 play-offs after another positive success on Saturday.
City completed a league double at Spartans’ Ainslie Park ground with what manager Allan Hale described as a “really valuable” 2-1 victory in Edinburgh.
The hard-fought success, earned by first half strikes from Dajon Golding and a first for the club for Jack MacIver, avenged a recent Spartans victory at Borough Briggs when City were in the midst of a six-game losing streak.
Now on back-to-back wins, the target is a third consecutive three points when the Black and Whites pay a visit to bottom side Bonnyrigg Rose this weekend.
“Spartans are a really, really good side, with great identity in what they do and we've got real respect for our coaching staff,” Hale said.
“It was a really tough game and one where both teams played to win the game and both teams left everything out on the pitch.
“It was just pleasing to fall on the right side of the margins and it was a really valuable three points for sure.”
The win was City’s first away success in League 2 in five months, since they won 3-1 at the same venue in October.
Striker Golding broke a 14-game personal scoring drought by forcing home a Russell Dingwall cross at the near post, and Buckie loan forward MacIver finished off a flowing Elgin move to make it 2-0 at the break.
Jamie Dishington’s response for the capital side meant that the visitors had to hold on for around 40 minutes to defeat their closest rivals to fourth place and a coveted play-offs slot.
“It just reinforces to the players that they're still a good team,” Hale added.
“We've always stayed positive within the losing run because we know that I've got a lot of belief in the group and I've got so much admiration for them in terms of what they've achieved in a short space of time and how quickly they've developed as a young team.
“It's still quite a new team and it was pleasing for them that they were able to come out of the losing run and put two back-to-back wins together.
“The challenge now is to go and sustain it. We've got six cup finals really and every team is scrapping for points at this stage.
“All we can do now is focus on Bonnyrigg away on Saturday, which will be another tough game.”
New Dundas Park hasn’t exactly been a happy hunting ground for City since Bonnyrigg were promoted to League 2 in 2022.
A Russell Dingwall hat-trick helped the Borough Briggs men to a 3-2 win in their maiden visit, but in four visits since they have lost each time, scoring just once and conceding 12 goals.
Hampered by a six-point deduction imposed as a result of the slope on their pitch, Rose slipped to bottom spot on Saturday following Forfar Athletic’s win at Stranraer and the SPFL newcomers will be determined not to allow their history in senior football to be a short chapter.
Hale said: “They're going to be fighting and scrapping for points, the same way that the majority of teams are at the moment. Every team still has something to play for.
“It's going to be a difficult game, we know that. We know every time we play Bonnyrigg, it's a tough game. We're going to have to do the basics of the game really well.
“We will need the same level of performance to what we've done the last three games.
“We'll try and deal with that first and pick a team that we feel will be best equipped to deal with the game, and hopefully we can pick up another positive result.
The City boss gave an injury update on three players currently on the sidelines.
January signing Kane Hester is awaiting the results of a scan on his hip problem, with Hale hopeful that the striker can still play this season.
That’s a prospect unlikely to be available to Kilmarnock loan winger Kian Leslie, whose hamstring tear stacks the odds against him kicking another ball in the current campaign.
Full back Lyall Booth has missed City’s last three outings since limping off against Forfar with an ankle problem and Hale said: “He's not healed as quickly as what we'd expected him to, so he'll be out this week as well.”
