Russell Dingwall feels Elgin City must prove they can string consistency together in their remaining six League Two matches.
The Black and Whites host Edinburgh City on Saturday, having dropped to ninth place due to Albion Rovers’ 1-0 win over Stirling Albion on Tuesday.
Elgin go into the match fresh from a spirited 0-0 draw with 10 men against champions-elect Kelty Hearts last weekend.
The result means Gavin Price’s men have lost just once in four matches against the Fifers this term.
That makes midfielder Dingwall all the more frustrated at Elgin’s position, as they aim to secure a first win in 15 meetings with the Citizens on Saturday.
Dingwall said: “Against Kelty, we have beaten them once and they have beaten us once, and we have had two draws.
“They are the runaway leaders in the league and rightly so. It shows that on our day, when we are at it, we can give anyone in the league a game.
“It’s about trying to put it all together for the full season. It’s not just picking ourselves up for the big games.
“For every game we have to try and be at that level – that’s what we’ve got to try and get to.
“We know ourselves we have not been near where we should be in our own performances.
“Every time we play Edinburgh it’s a close game but we just can’t seem to get that win.
“It’s not something we will go into the game thinking about. We will just go and play our game.
“It would be lovely to try and get one over on them, but we just need to go and focus on the game as a single and see how it goes.”
Dingwall says strong end to campaign can lay down marker for next term
Elgin’s only defeat from their last four matches came late on against Annan Athletic earlier this month.
With 10 points separating Elgin from bottom-placed Cowdenbeath, Dingwall hopes to finish the campaign strongly to lay down foundations for next term.
He added: “After getting the win against Stirling, we knew we were going on to play the top three teams in the league back-to-back.
“We have picked up two draws and got beaten by Annan, although there was nothing in the game down there. It was just a slack goal we conceded from a set-piece.
“We play all the teams around us now. The top teams are out of the way for the rest of the season.
“We just need to try and pick up as many wins as we can, and try to finish as high up the table as possible.
“We want to take a bit of momentum and positivity into next year.”
Midfielder aiming to kick on after reaching Elgin century
Former Ross County player Dingwall clocked up his 100th appearance for Elgin in the 2-1 home loss to Stranraer on February 12.
100 APPS CLUB
Congratulations to Russell Dingwall, Thomas McHale & Kane Hester who have all recently made their 100th Appearance for the City.
Here's hoping there will be many more in a black & white shirt 🤍⚽ pic.twitter.com/MlC0Oac9lJ
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) March 21, 2022
Leading scorer Kane Hester and goalkeeper Thomas McHale also reached the same milestone in recent weeks.
Dingwall insists a strong desire to progress is evident within Elgin’s squad.
The 24-year-old added: “The reason I came to Elgin was to play games at first team level.
“Playing 100 games is a good achievement for myself and hopefully I can play many more.
“It’s good to keep the bulk of the squad together. Most of us will probably be there again next year, so it gives us a bit of continuity.
“Most of our squad is probably mid-20s. It’s quite a young squad, so if everyone sticks around we’ve got plenty time to gel together even more and see where we can go.”