Elgin City manager Gavin Price cut a dejected figure at Ochilview last night after watching his side concede an injury-time equaliser against Stenhousemuir after earlier leading 2-0 through Kane Hester and Rory MacEwan.
Skipper Andy Munro’s last-gasp header cost the Black and Whites a first away win since October and prevented them rising to fifth place in League 2.
“We should have killed the game off, but we didn’t make the right decisions or choices at the right time,” admitted Price. “We should have had the game done and dusted, and you’ve got to defend better at the end, so it’s very frustrating.
“The penalty gave Stenhousemuir something to have a go at in the second half, and if you give them seven or eight corners, then they might make something out of one of them, which they did.
“It is what it is and we can’t change it. We just have to pick ourselves up and go again.”
Boosted by their weekend win at Brechin, Stenny got off to a lively start and Alan Cook’s early corner caused havoc in the visitors’ six-yard box.
City survived and gradually began to take control, although a couple of marginal offside decisions stopped them from turning pressure into goals.
That all changed in the 29th minute when Hester reacted quickest as the ball ran loose and lashed a first-time shot beyond home keeper Graeme Smith.
Elgin doubled their lead less than two minutes later after MacEwan outjumped the static Warriors defence and headed past Smith.
Stenhousemuir desperately needed to pull a goal back before half time and they did exactly that in the 35th minute when Botti Biabi was tripped inside the box and squeezed the spot kick past keeper Thomas McHale to register his first goal for Stenny.
Biabi’s penalty changed the whole complexion of the match and Elgin were soon under the cosh in the early stages of the second half. A series of home set-pieces threatened to conjure up an equaliser, but Stenny’s momentum stalled when defender David Marsh sustained a serious head knock. Following medical treatment, he was able to walk back to the dressing room, but his game was over. His replacement Connor McBride soon tested McHale from long-range as the Warriors kept pressing.
Price attempted to stem the tide by bringing on Rabin Omar and Matthew Aitken, although it was a familiar face who almost restored Elgin’s two-goal buffer when Shane Sutherland’s deflected effort flashed inches wide.
The visitors tempted fate by sitting deeper and deeper as full-time approached and Munro made them pay at the death to earn Stenny a point.