Lyall Booth believes Elgin City can make their mark in the Premier Sports Cup when they face Kelty Hearts.
The Black and Whites started their Group C campaign with a 5-0 home defeat against Hibernian on Saturday.
City return to action tonight when Kelty make the trip to Borough Briggs and defender Booth is looking for an improved showing.
After facing the League One Fifers, League Two Elgin are away to Peterhead on Saturday and visit Queen’s Park next Tuesday.
Booth said: “Kelty are a part-time team like ourselves, so it’s a more realistic chance for us to get points.
“They’re coming up to Elgin midweek, so we need to try to take advantage of being at home.
“Hopefully we’ll enjoy a bit more of the ball than we had on Saturday and hopefully we can cause them problems.
“I’m optimistic about the rest of the group and we want to get as many points as we can.
“Although it was 5-0 on Saturday, if we can brush up on a couple of things and cut out the individual errors, then we can get results.”
Elgin City new boys still bedding in
Six of Elgin’s seven summer signings – Kyle Girvan, Jack Murray, Ryan Sargent, Dayshonne Golding, Dylan Gavin and Olly McDonald – featured at the weekend.
Lewis Hyde was the only new face who was absent, due to a hamstring issue which is also set to keep him out of the Kelty clash.
Booth has been impressed with City’s summer business, but believes the new-look squad are still taking time to gel.
The 21-year-old, who signed from Huntly in January, added: “With seven new players coming in, we do need some time to gel.
“Even though we’ve had friendlies, I think it takes a few games to get going and to get used to each other.
“All the new boys are looking sharp. They’re all good players and you can see that in training and the friendlies we’ve had and also in glimpses on Saturday.”
Looking back on Hibs defeat
Reflecting on the weekend loss against Hibs, Booth was able to draw some positives from Elgin’s display.
However, the contest was decided in a damaging period either side of half-time.
After a decent spell from City, their Premiership opponents netted their second goal a minute before the interval, before pushing on and scoring three times in the opening 12 minutes after the restart.
Booth said: “We started slowly, but after the first 15 minutes up until half-time, I thought we were good.
“We kept the ball in good areas, we managed to press at times and had a couple of half chances.
“But they scored a goal right before half-time which was tough and deflated things a wee bit.
“Then at the start of the second half we switched off a couple of times and conceded from crosses into the box.”
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