Aberdeen teenager Evan Towler wasn’t fazed by the watching eyes of Dons boss Stephen Glass and captain Scott Brown as he put on a mature performance for Elgin City in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Albion Rovers.
The 17-year-old has shone in three appearances on loan at City but admitted he had to keep his focus and forget about who was in the Borough Briggs stand keeping tabs on his performance.
“I knew they were watching me but I just tried to block all of that out and just play my game,” he said.
“If I play well on the pitch, everything else will take care of itself. That’s all that matters.
“First team football is what I came out here to play and I have loved every minute of it so far.
“It’s a battle playing against older players but you just enjoy every minute of it because you don’t know how long it will last for.
“First team football is crucial for my development so I’ll just take every opportunity when it comes to play well.”
Towler impressed as Elgin extended their unbeaten League 2 run to five games but manager Gavin Price knew it was a missed opportunity to win all three points.
City took the lead, missed a penalty and played half the game against ten men and Price said: “It’s two points dropped, there’s no doubt about that.
“It’s an opportunity we’ve let slip by.
“We got 1-0 ahead in the game, then a minute before half time we were extremely slack in conceding a corner that they scored from.
“We put ourselves under pressure and gave them a lift going into half time.
“We’ve had the sending off after that, we’ve had a ridiculous amount of possession and certainly enough chances to win the game.
“Their keeper (Cammy Binnie) made some fantastic saves, one from Kane Hester’s penalty as well as the rebound, and another when he went through one-on one.
“It was a real opportunity to get right in amongst the middle of the pack.”
Price kept Daniel Hoban in goal at the expense of Tom McHale who missed last Friday’s 2-2 draw at Edinburgh City and had to settle for a place on the bench.
Captain Euan Spark returned from injury in place of Matthew Cooper, who limped off at Edinburgh while Tony Dingwall and Ross Draper came in for Josh Peters and Matheus Machado.
Draper had the first chance of the game on ten minutes, directing his header wide from a Russell Dingwall free kick.
Albion’s trialist centre-back went into the book for a late challenge on Angus Mailer on 17 minutes.
Neither side looked to be threatening an opening goal until City worked the ball to Kane Hester in the box and he went down under a Sean Fagan challenge with ref George Calfer pointing to the spot.
Hester took the kick himself and slotted home his tenth goal of the season on 25 minutes.
The half was petering out to a tame conclusion when Albion were awarded a corner kick on the left side in the final minute.
Charlie Reilly’s kick picked out Fagan at the near post and he was completely unmarked to fire a header past Hoban to level the scores.
Albion suffered a setback two minutes after the break when trialist defender Peter Watson picked up his second yellow of the match and was sent off, forcing his team to take off front man Josh Jack and put on stopper Adam Fernie.
Hester was denied by a fine Binnie save and when City were awarded a second spot kick of the afternoon for another foul on Hester, they looked good to regain their advantage.
However Binnie saved Hester’s penalty and the rebound to keep the score at 1-1.
City piled on the pressure with Rovers keeper Binnie tipping over Russell Dingwall’s 20 yard strike while Machado and Darryl McHardy had shots on goal blocked.
Mailer then sent a volley wide on 87 minutes as Rovers clung on for a hard-earned point.
Here is the team lineup for todays match against @albionrovers
Come on City! 🖤⚽️ pic.twitter.com/usHd3UQTLG
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) January 15, 2022
