On-loan defender Jevan Anderson is determined to make the 500-mile round trip a fruitful journey for Elgin City as they seek to finally land a blow on Annan Athletic on Saturday.
The 21-year-old, who has joined the Moray club on loan from League 1 leaders Cove Rangers until the end of the season, has made an immediate impact.
With City on a worrying five-fixture losing run in League 2, he was pitched into a debut against Stirling Albion, which they won 3-1 and they followed it up with an impressive 0-0 draw at third-placed Forfar Athletic at the weekend.
Well done to our GK Daniel Hoban who was named in this weeks @spfl Team of the week 🤩 pic.twitter.com/JZuqf7s1qy
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) March 8, 2022
The club’s north-based players face an epic road trip to Galabank, where the side lost 4-1 earlier in the season, while Annan have posted a couple of 2-0 wins at Borough Briggs.
The division’s second-placed side are 14 points away from champions-elect Kelty Hearts, but will be keen to stave off Forfar’s challenge to secure the runners-up spot.
Elgin are eighth in the table, but only one point behind Stirling and two adrift of Stranraer as they seek to rise a position or two.
Elgin impress against leading sides
Anderson believes the encouraging displays in the past fortnight will stand them in good stead ahead of facing tough opponents.
He said: “We can take confidence from last weekend. Elgin have put in some strong performances and got good results against teams at or near the top of the league, such as against Forfar and Kelty Hearts.
“I know Elgin have not got the best record against Annan this season, but hopefully we will make a good account of ourselves down there. It’s a long way to travel and hopefully we will do ourselves justice.
“There were 10 games left when I joined Elgin and the side had lost five successive games. They had important points to fight for and we’ve got four points from those two games. The league table looks a bit nicer now.”
Closing in on full fitness at Elgin
The former Burton player had played only 10 times for Cove this term due to injuries, but he’s delighted to be building up the minutes in an Elgin shirt.
He said: “I’m enjoying it. After the first game, I had only had one session, so I was thrown in straight at it, which can be the best way to be.
“We got the good win against Stirling Albion and backed it up with a strong performance and a clean sheet at Forfar. It has been a good start for me at Elgin and hopefully we can carry it on this weekend.
“I’m feeling good. Since coming to Elgin, I’ve now played my first back-to-back 90 minutes of the season.
“It has been a broken-up season for one reason or another and, while I don’t yet feel quite 100 per cent in terms of match sharpness, that will come in the next few games and I can push on towards the back end of the season.”
Entire team all have defensive duties
Anderson has been impressed by his temporary team-mates, who have worked well from the front to ensure their most recent opponents’ chances are limited.
He added: “The team really needed to tighten up, but that doesn’t just come from the players at the back and the goalkeeper. It starts with the strikers pressing from the front and midfielders picking up second balls.
“It’s not the pretty side of football, but if you don’t do that right you’ll never get anywhere. If you do the hard yards first, you’ll have the platform to build from and we’ve done that in the past two matches.”
City won’t get complacent – Anderson
And Anderson, who has the option of another year at Cove this summer, is urging Elgin to bank more points in a bid to ensure there’s no fresh flirtation with the drop zone.
Cowdenbeath, at the foot of the table in the relegation play-off position, are 10 points behind but do have a game in hand.
Anderson said: “We really can only take one game at a time. We won’t get too far ahead of ourselves. Although the last two results have been positive, it was not long again Elgin were on the back of five defeats.
“If you get too far ahead of yourselves, you can become complacent and, before you know it, you’re struggling for results again.
“Hopefully now we can start looking up the table. There are a couple of teams within range and we’re looking to move up a couple of places. We will take it as it comes.”