Elgin City boss Gavin Price wants his side to start games quicker as they bid to cement a place in the League Two play-offs.
The Borough Briggs side face Stenhousemuir tonight, knowing a positive result will be good enough to confirm their place in the top half.
The focus will then switch on to maintaining their position in the play-offs, which will be decided by the top-half split after April 20.
Elgin lost 1-0 to Cowdenbeath at the weekend, with the only goal coming after 19 minutes. It highlighted Price’s belief his side need to come out of the traps quicker and stamp their authority on games.
He said: “We need to start games better. I don’t think we’ve started any game particularly since the season’s recommenced.
Full Time@CowdenbeathFC 1-0 Elgin City
Despite a dominant second half it ends in defeat at Central Park.
Next up is a trip to Stenhousemuir on Tuesday
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) April 10, 2021
“We’ve been quite slow to get in a rhythm – we need to concentrate on that aspect. If you lose the first goal it can be difficult and on Saturday it cost us.
“We can’t be giving teams head-starts. We started slowly at Brechin and did the same against Annan. I can’t put my finger on it at the moment; we’ve spoken about it before a few of the games.
“It’s almost like they’re playing within themselves at the start of games, until they realise. It’s maybe a self-confidence thing, that they’re a good team and we wouldn’t have the points on the board if we weren’t.
“We’ve got to get the traps early and show it from the first minute of the game, not just later on when we’re settled in.”
Price expects to have a similar available to him from Saturday’s trip to Central Park, with Elgin knowing a point would be enough to guarantee them a place in the top half.
He added: “They’re all massive games now – they’re coming thick and fast. We’ve got to put the disappointment of Saturday behind us and try and rectify it tonight.
“The first goal is to do that (get top half). We know any sort of result against Stenhousemuir will do that.
“It was a blip on Saturday and that’s all it is. We’ve been good at rectifying things this season – no-one was shouting and bawling after the game. They were going about things rationally thinking ‘let’s fix this’.”
