Russell Dingwall hopes Elgin City’s Viaplay Cup campaign can help them make a good start in League Two.
The Black and Whites play their second Group G fixture tonight when they tackle East Fife at New Bayview.
Elgin performed with credit in their opening encounter, Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Motherwell, and still have clashes with Queen of the South and Queen’s Park to come.
Although Dingwall would like to get results in the League Cup he admits Elgin’s main focus is on being ready for the start of their league campaign next month.
The 26-year-old midfielder said: “The manager’s said to us it’s about getting minutes and getting ready in the League Cup and the main focus for us is on Stranraer at Borough Briggs on August 5.
“There’s a team from every league in the SPFL in our group and playing East Fife is a good test for us.
“They’re a team we’ll be fighting with to be where we want to be in the league so it will be a good gauge playing them.
“We’ve also still got the likes Matthew Cooper, Jake Dolzanski and Mitchell Taylor out injured, who are all important in our squad.
“They’ve got a couple of weeks to get ready for the league season.”
New faces
It’s a refreshed Elgin squad for this season with the likes of Kane Hester, Darryl McHardy and Angus Mailer moving on in the summer.
Player-manager Ross Draper has managed to bring in three new faces so far.
Defender Blair McKenzie and striker Liam Harvey have joined on loan from Aberdeen with midfielder Ryan MacLeman being loaned from Ross County.
Dingwall was impressed with what he saw from the new recruits in Saturday’s clash with Motherwell.
The former Ross County player added: “There’s been big changes this summer, we were maybe a bit short to start with.
“But a couple of new boys came in last week to give us a lift ahead of the Motherwell game.
“The gaffer is hoping to bring in a couple more and then we’ll be ready to go.
“I thought all three new signings did well on Saturday. Blair was solid at the back, Ryan did well in midfield and Liam had a pretty thankless task up front.
“But he worked his socks off and you can’t ask more than that.
“As a team I thought we kept our shape well in the first half on Saturday.
“We knew we weren’t going to have a lot of possession against a Premiership team.
“We changed our shape for the second half and kept the ball a bit better, we created a couple of half chances and had one off the line at 1-0 which maybe could have changed the game.
“When the second goal went in we knew the game was done, but we kept going and tried to do things the right way and we’re quite happy with how we did against a Premiership side.”
‘A completely different game’
Last season, East Fife forward Alan Trouten scored a penalty in three of their four league wins against Elgin and he struck the decisive spot-kick to gain a bonus point victory against Championship Queen’s Park following a 0-0 draw on Saturday.
Elgin City player-manager Draper is well aware of the 37-year-old’s attacking ability, but insists his team will be on their guard for more than the number 10.
He said: “Alan’s a very good player with a good bit of experience. He certainly did cause us problems last year with a few goals in that 10 position and he’s someone we need to watch out for.
“But East Fife are full of good players such as Brian Easton and (ex-ICT striker) Nathan Austin. They have added to what was already a good team with good players, so there are other players to watch. We will be further prepared.
“This is a completely different game for us compared to Saturday, against a team from our league. It will be a tough challenge in a different way.
“We may change the personnel a bit for Tuesday. After losing to Motherwell, it’s unlikely we will be able to qualify from our group, but we will still be going to win and breed that into boys, form a winning habit if we can.
“We’ll aim to put on a strong performance and a win would do a lot for our confidence.”