Elgin City manager Gavin Price is urging one final push tonight as the Black and Whites’ promotion play-off bid could hinge on beating League Two champions Queen’s Park.
It is sure to be a night of nerves as his fourth-placed side need to at least match Stranraer’s result against Edinburgh City to secure a play-off berth.
Edinburgh beat Elgin 2-0 on Saturday to remain in second spot and opened up a three-point advantage with a goal difference that is four better than the Moray men. Edinburgh’s win guarantees a top-four finish for Gary Naysmith’s ambitious side regardless of what unfolds tonight.
Stirling, who lost 3-1 at Elgin on Thursday, are firmly in the mix right now too. Their 2-2 draw at home to Stranraer, earned with a last-minute goal, moved them third, one point ahead of Elgin and Stranraer.
Elgin could even pip Edinburgh to the runner-up position, should they overturn the goal difference by beating the visiting, league-winning Spiders this evening and Edinburgh lose by a suitable margin at Stranraer.
The sides that finish second and third in League Two by the close of play will meet one another, also on Saturday and Tuesday, with the runners-up away first.
The club which finishes fourth in League Two will face a double-header semi-final against the second-bottom side in League One. The first tie would be at home on Saturday then away next Tuesday.
Clyde or Dumbarton could await Elgin
That team is currently Dumbarton, who finish up against Peterhead tonight. If the Sons beat the Blue Toon then Clyde will fall to ninth spot and would require a positive outcome in their rearranged game against East Fife on Thursday.
The winners of both play-offs will then meet for the right to become, or possibly remain, a League One outfit next term.
Champions Queen’s Park have not conceded against Elgin this term, winning 1-0 at Borough Briggs in November before the sides drew 0-0 at the Falkirk Stadium last month when that result confirmed the Glasgow club as the league winners.
‘Gutsy performance’
That determined performance from Elgin followed three successive defeats and gives them hope taking on the best in the division in tonight’s crunch showdown.
Boss Price said: “We have everything to play for and we have to make sure that shows on the park.
“The good thing is we know exactly what we need to do. We can’t set out to draw a game. We will be positive and try and win the game of football.
“If we can do that it will be job done, but it’s going to be tough against a team full of such good players, but we need to make sure that home advantage counts in a game that means so much.
“We put up a really good, gutsy, performance against Queen’s Park down there. We need to be firing again. It’s a great shame that there will be no fans here on Tuesday.
“These big games are the ones the supporters deserve. They would have given us an extra advantage, but let’s hope we can still do the business.”
Price said the final message for his players ahead of kick-off will be: “To just go and be positive. All we can do is our best. I think we deserve to get into the play-offs after the results we’ve had recently, but we still have one more big result to get.”
Edinburgh, who now need only one point at Stranraer to secure second place, got off to a dream start at the weekend against an Elgin side unbeaten in three.
Josh Campbell scored with a low shot after only six minutes and Liam Brown doubled their lead seven minutes before the interval.