Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

The Spartans 2-1 Elgin City: Ross Draper admits defeat was a ‘harsh lesson’

The Borough Briggs men have picked up one point from their opening three league matches.

Ross Draper. Image: SNS.
Ross Draper. Image: SNS.

Elgin City’s disappointing start to their league campaign continued at a blustery Ainslie Park as the Black and Whites were edged out by newly-promoted Spartans who recorded their first-ever SPFL victory.

There can be no doubt that the performance of the Elgin side was affected by the howling gale which blew around the exposed Edinburgh stadium for much of the game but player/manager Ross Draper refused to use that as an excuse.

The Elgin boss preferred to focus on the shortcomings in his team’s performance as they succumbed to a defeat which has left them winless after their opening three league fixtures.

“We weren’t great today,” acknowledged Draper.

“Conditions were tough in the first half and it was just a case of getting into the dressing room at half time and having a conversation but we didn’t pass the ball at all before the interval and after the restart we just couldn’t get the ball out of the wind.

“No excuses though – it was the same for both teams.

“We need to do the right things, we need to get better on the ball.

“It’s been a harsh lesson regarding the performance.”

Both sides struggled to cope with windy conditions early on but it was Spartans, playing against the wind, who took control as the first half progressed.

They almost took the lead just after the half hour when their talismanic striker Blair Henderson saw his close-range effort slip past City goalkeeper Tom McHale before rebounding from a post.

The fact that Elgin made it to half time without conceding was largely down to the heroics of McHale who saved well at the feet of Henderson before displaying outstanding agility to tip Rhys Armstrong’s goal-bound free-kick over the crossbar.

With the wind behind them after the break, Spartans continued to dominate and forged ahead just after the hour when Armstrong released James Craigen who lashed the ball beyond McHale from 15 yard.

Armstrong then netted the crucial second goal two minutes later when he cut in from the right before firing home from the edge of the penalty area.

Russell Dingwall pulled one back for Elgin with 13 minutes remaining but Spartans held on for a deserved victory.

Draper said: “We did get back into the game with Russell’s goal and we had chances to nick a point. The goals we conceded were poor and overall it was not a good display.”

Draper acknowledged that Elgin remain in a transitional period following changes in both the managerial and playing staff over the summer.

He added: “It is a time of transition, of course.

“I’ve said that to the boys but we need to get results while we’re going through that stage.

“We can’t just go from A to Z straight away.

“After today we need to regroup and get ready to go again next week.”

Conversation