Elgin City defender David Wilson is determined to show today’s opponents Cove Rangers they cannot have it all their own way in League 2 this season.
Newcomers Cove have enjoyed an excellent start to the season, with Paul Hartley’s men three points clear at the top having won five of their opening six matches.
After coming from the Highland League through the pyramid play-offs, Cove have been widely tipped to achieve back-to-back promotions, however Wilson is determined to stop the Aberdeen outfit in their tracks in what will be the sides’ first league meeting since City themselves stepped up in 2000.
Wilson said: “With them flying, we will be out to prove a point that they can’t just come in and walk through this league.
“It’s about as close to a geographical derby as we could get.
“Hopefully it will have that derby edge. We will get in about them, press them and hopefully force them into mistakes.
“Cove are top of the league and unbeaten. We can see that although they score a lot of goals, they also concede a lot of goals.
“Hopefully we can start the game really well, and give the crowd something to cheer.
“If we were to go ahead early on the noise would be great from the crowd and Cove would find it difficult to deal with that.
“We have got the firepower up top with Shane Sutherland, Kane Hester and Brian Cameron.
“If we can get a goal or two up and put them on the backfoot, it will be interesting to see how they react.”
City are aiming to bounce back from last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Stirling Albion at Forthbank, with Wilson insisting margins are fine at such an early stage in the campaign.
The 19-year-old added: “We’ve had three draws already this season.
“I think it’s going to be a really competitive league, where anybody can take points off anybody.
“We are still looking up. The Stirling result has got them off the bottom of the table, so we are three points off the play-offs but also three points off the bottom.
“The game this weekend is definitely a chance to put a marker down and show what we were all about.”
City’s loss to the Binos followed an impressive 2-1 away victory over Championship side Dundee in the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup the previous weekend, and Wilson is eager to build on his side’s cup form.
He added: “We want to try and take the form we have had in the cups into the league.
“Our cup form has been really good, with three away wins in the Challenge Cup.
“It’s just trying to find that consistency in the league. Coming off the back of the Dundee result we were full of confidence, but for one reason or another it just didn’t happen down at Stirling.
“We are definitely looking to bounce back.
“We go into every game thinking we can win it. We saw that at Dens Park.”
City manager Gavin Price confirmed on-loan Caley Thistle winger Daniel MacKay is back in contention after returning to training following an ankle injury, however Rabin Omar is suspended following his dismissal at Forthbank.