City boss takes positives from United defeat
FOUR Betfred Cup defeats without scoring a goal won’t have Elgin City manager Gavin Price pulling out his hair in despair.
City lost 4-0 at home to Dundee United on Saturday after frustrating the Tannadice side for three quarters of the match.
But another solid defensive display from 18-year-old David Wilson and a hard-working shift from his entire team pleased the Elgin boss.
“The heads are really down in the dressing room because we’ve not scored again and it’s a 4-0. It looks a lot worse than it actually is," he said.
“They are clearly dead on their feet in those last 20 minutes. For a lot of the guys it’s a third game in seven days and we’ve not had the luxury of being able to freshen up the team.
“We are trying to say to them ‘let’s focus on the good part’ and for 70 minutes we really matched Dundee United and didn’t concede a lot of chances to them.
“I thought we defended really well and worked really hard as a team so for me despite the 4-0 scoreline there were a lot of positives in the game.
“There’s a few massive plusses to come out of it. David Wilson again today was outstanding, he’s really shown that he’s ready to jump in at this level.
“We are working with a new shape to the team and by and large it has been successful.”
United held the bulk of possession during the first half but were restricted to few scoring chances with on-loan Dundee keeper having little to do in the City goal.
Gourlay did save well from Matt Smith at the start of the second half but it took the introduction of United’s Congolese winger Yannick Loemba as substitute to spark some life into their attacks.
Loemba had only been on the park for a few minutes when he started the move which led to Nicky Clark firing United into a 66th minute lead.
Clark, who scored four first half goals against Elgin for Dunfermline in the Betfred Cup last season, soon added a second from a Loemba cross on the left.
A Darryl McHardy foul on Clark gave United an 80th minute penalty which Adam Barton scored to make it 3-0, and sub Declan Glass’ solo effort in stoppage time against a tiring home side completed the scoring.
Elgin also lost 2-0 to Ross County and Arbroath and 3-0 to Alloa in their section.
It was United’s first win in the group stages and like Elgin they exit the competition.
Manager Price’s focus can now turn to the important league action and next Saturday’s opening fixture away to Annan.
Elgin (3-5-2): Gourlay; Cooper, Wilson, McHardy; Farquhar, Banjo (Hay 69), McGovern, Miller, Lowdon (Taylor 83); McLeish (McDade 87), Sutherland. Subs: Thomson, Ballam, Ross.
Dundee Utd (4-4-2): Siegrist; Wardrop, Frans (Watson 84), Edjenguele, Robson; Aird (Loemba 60), Barton, Rabitsch, Stanton; Smith, Clark (Glass 81). Subs: McMullan, Allardice, Ritchie, Rakouan.
Ref: John McKendrick
Att: 1104
