Key men back for City league start

City boss Gavin Price hopes seeing his full squad train together at their new Laurencekirk base this week can prepare them for the tough and long trip to Annan on Saturday.

Price is keen to dismiss any negativity over his team failing to get on the scoresheet in all four cup defeats over the past fortnight.

Elgin were beaten 4-0 at home to Dundee United last weekend, following on from losses to Ross County, Arbroath and Alloa in the same group.

He insists the positives he has taken from four matches against higher league sides far outweigh any minuses, and with two key players back for Saturday he is raring to get started with the league action.

"I don't think anybody should be reading too much into results in these games," he said.

"If you take the pre-season as a whole, we started with games where we had more of the ball and scored goals in games against the likes of Kelty Hearts, Buckie, Inverness Clach and Forres. We've shown that we can do that side and by and large the tests we've had we've come through fairly well.

"We knew we faced difficult games in the Betfred Cup and I feel we've improved as we've went along. We are in a reasonable place particularly when some of our key players are back fit again.

"Brian Cameron is fit again and Rabin Omar is available for Saturday and that makes a big difference."

This week was all about preparation, and with the manager calling on both north and south based contingents to meet up their new Aberdeenshire training base on Wednesday, problems identified in the cup matches could be remedied.

"It's the first time since I've been at Elgin that we've been able to do this so I am quite optimistic that it's going to help us in the long run.

"We can properly focus now and start to work on things that have been highlighted over the last four games that we need to work on."

City's summer has not been easy, with Cameron and former Scotland international Craig Beattie getting injured in the first pre-season game.

Beattie is expected to be fit for Elgin's first home game against his previous club Edinburgh City.

Stephen Bronsky then broke his ankle in the cup opener at Ross County, with lesser injuries and cup suspensions to Omar and Darryl McHardy stretching Price's player pool.

"But the dress rehearsals are over now and the excuses I've been giving over the past few games about players being injured or not quite ready, these excuses are out of the way because it's the real stuff now," he said.

"I'm confident that the challenging games we've had should stand us in good stead.

"It's really about being ready for Saturday against Annan which will be a tough game.

"Their performances over pre season have been quite good but hopefully we can get off to a good start.

"It's traditionally been quite a hard place for us to go so we need to start on the front foot."

Ryan Farquhar misses out as he is away on holiday.