Elgin City boss Gavin Price has vowed to lead the Moray club back into promotion contention after their drive to progress up the divisions was stalled at the death by Edinburgh City.
The Borough Briggs men suffered heartbreak in their League One play-off semi-final as they lost 3-2 on aggregate after Darryl McHardy’s headed brace looked set to earn extra-time before Josh Campbell’s late wonder winner.
Speaking moments after the final whistle at Ainslie Park, Price said: “We put enough in to win the game. It looked like extra-time but then it was a sucker-punch towards the end.
“We will dust ourselves down and go again. The club has been great with us and I hope they back us with the players we want to get in for next season. We have shown over the last two years we can perform at this level. We want to go one better.
“The directors have really backed us in terms of things like letting us prepare properly for this second leg with a pre-match meal and the team talk done in a good environment.
“The yoga sessions for the boys helped us too. We have not had an injury over this whole period compared to other teams. These wee extra things like the yoga get the boys prepared properly. The club has backed us.
“We have most of the squad signed now and I have one or two key targets that I think we need and I believe if we get that we will be even stronger next year.”
The Black and Whites manager was full of pride for his side taking the semi-final all the way.
He stressed: “The players put so much into the game. I don’t put too much stock into being glorious losers. We showed we had enough to do the business.
“It was a very even game between two evenly matched teams. You could see that – in the league we matched them on points. It proved that way over the two legs.
“I am really proud of how the players performed tonight. Edinburgh were always going to have their moments in the game and we withstood that pretty well at times.
“We created a lot of chances. We gambled by bringing on Josh Peters towards the end and I felt we were in the ascendency and looked like we could go and nick it.
“Their keeper made a great save towards the end. It was harsh on young Craig Brown who gave the ball away but he will learn from it.”
