Elgin City made big advances in their battle for SPFL survival with a 2-0 home win against Forfar Athletic their first in eight league games, checking the visitors promotion hopes in the process.
First half goals by Kane Hester and Aberdeen loan striker Aaron Reid took the Black and Whites to victory.
With nearest rivals Albion Rovers and Bonnyrigg Rose losing, the Moray club are now eighth – four points clear of bottom spot.
City goalkeeping coach Stevie Dunn, who along with Ross Draper and Charlie Charlesworth has taken interim charge at Borough Briggs since Gavin Price’s sacking two weekends ago, praised the team’s display.
Dunn said City are playing with renewed optimism, building on Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Stenhousemuir.
“Tuesday and Saturday is probably the best we’ve played at home all season,” he said.
“We are working as a unit and everybody is working for each other.”
Next week, Elgin make the long trip to Stranraer, who lost 8-0 to East Fife and sit only a point ahead of the north side in seventh place.
Dunn warned: “It’s not finished yet. We’ve got to go into next Saturday and get the three points again.
“Things have improved massively and you can see the freshness in some of the players – they are just different players altogether.”
Dunn reserved special praise for 19-year-old youth product Matt Jamieson, describing his performance on the left side as “absolutely brilliant”.
Jamieson himself spoke about his desire to keep his place in the Elgin team after making only his third start in City colours.
“I’m happy with the way I played today and it was a brilliant result,” said the midfielder, who spent last season and part of the current campaign on loan at Deveronvale.
“I was playing well at Vale and it was a bit of a surprise when I came back when I did, but I was buzzing to get back to Elgin and get some games.
“There’s definitely a change in the confidence levels and we just need to keep it going now.”
Elgin blow Forfar away in first half
Two goals inside the opening 20 minutes set the Borough Briggs men up for a much-needed success – their first at home in the league since December.
The first came from top-scorer Hester, who raced on to Brian Cameron’s ninth-minute pass and created space for himself on the edge of the box to swerve a shot high past Marc McCallum.
Ten minutes later Hester was denied at point-blank range by McCallum after a superb run and cross from Jamieson, but the loose ball fell to Dons’ teenager Reid, who rolled home confidently.
Forfar found themselves pinned back and a deflected Brian Cameron effort forced McCallum to push away from under his bar, before Darryl McHardy forced the rebound into the side netting.
A determined Russell Dingwall run on 43 minutes created another scoring opportunity for Hester, but his good strike was blocked by McCallum to end a half dominated by the home side.
Forfar started the second half strongly with Tom McHale making his first save of the game from Craig Thomson’s volley seconds after the restart.
Thomson then flashed a drive wide from Finn Robson’s feed four minutes later as City began to look nervy,
However, there was a determination in the home ranks to keep a clean sheet, led by the efforts of caretaker player-boss Draper at the back.
Forfar’s efforts were thwarted and they slipped behind East Fife in the race for the League One promotion play-offs following their Elgin defeat.
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