Elgin City manager Gavin Price hopes the Black and Whites can come through a test of resilience when they host Stenhousemuir in League Two tomorrow.
City’s recent momentum, which had seen them rack up three straight wins, was ended when they went down 3-1 to an Albion Rovers side who claimed only their second win of the season at Cliftonhill last weekend.
⚽️⚽️⚽️ Yesterday's goals.
🟡🔴 #ARFCOKAY pic.twitter.com/nWRgLrKeYL
— Albion Rovers FC (@albionrovers) December 13, 2020
Elgin remain second in the table although third-placed Stirling Albion are now level, with the two sides trailing leaders Queen’s Park by five points.
With City aiming to underline their promotion credentials in the coming weeks, Price says showing a strong reaction to adversity will be vital to their play-off hopes.
Price said: “We’ve got to recover quickly from it. From being 1-0 up at half-time it’s really disappointing to lose the game.
“It’s one of these things we’ve just got to put behind us.
“That’s what it’s going to be about this season. We are not going to win every game, we’ve just got to make sure when we have a setback and we’re not at the races, that we turn it around to what we’ve been most of the season.
“If we are wanting to be up in the top four places this year we are going to have to do it that way.
“It’s not always going to go our own way. The way we are doing things, hopefully more often than not it will go our way.
“We will get them back going for Saturday.”
Stenny are among a number of teams aiming to put pressure on the Black and Whites, with Davie Irons’ side on the fringes of the play-off spots in fifth, with the opportunity to move level with Elgin with a victory at Borough Briggs.
The Warriors triumphed in both encounters in Elgin last season, with the two sides sharing a 2-2 draw at Ochilview last December.
With the likes of Mark McGuigan, Botti Biabi and Greig Spence on goalscoring form in recent weeks, Price feels Stenny have the firepower to cause his side problems, however he hopes City can inflict their own threat on tomorrow’s opponents.
He added: “There’s never going to be a game we go into expecting the right to win it.
“We’ve got to work hard in every game we come into, and Saturday is no different.
“Stenhousemuir will be a tough challenge so we have to be up for the fight.
“They have got good strikers in their team and two big guys at the back, so it’s going to be difficult.
“We know if we play the way we can we can hurt them.”
Elgin are playing the first of back-to-back home games, after being drawn against Lowland League outfit Civil Service Strollers in the Scottish Cup second round which takes place next weekend.
Price, who hopes to have a full squad available, hopes to give Elgin’s 220 permitted supporters reason to cheer, adding: “This will be the last league game this year, so it would be nice to finish it on a high.”