Elgin City manager Gavin Price admits the next fortnight will be used to get his players mentally ready after another sloppy start cost them three League Two points.
Away to Edinburgh City on Friday, Danny Handling scored for the hosts after just 13 seconds and doubled that scoreline just seven minutes later.
Elgin never recovered, despite a strong reaction, and the ended the weekend in sixth spot with five points on the board.
It’s a big two weeks now for the Moray men as they host early Championship strugglers Dunfermline Athletic in the SPFL Trust Trophy on Saturday before playing away to League Two leaders and red-hot favourites Kelty Hearts.
Price insists the group has overcome tough times before and is confident they’ll do so again.
He said: “The Dunfermline game will take care of itself. It’s a free hit. We will go and try to give a good account of ourselves and get Friday’s performance, certainly from the start, out of our system.
“We will get ready and train well this week. We have two weeks to get things right and I mean all aspects right. It’s alright playing pretty football now and again and creating chances.
“If we want to get to where we want to be, we need to be better in all aspects of the game. A mental switch has to be switched on pretty soon.
“I know this group of players. They have been loyal and I know their characters, so I know what they’re about.
“We’ve had our disagreements and issues we’ve had to resolve (in the past) to make us better and this is no different. This is a simple one – it’s about realising games don’t start after 15-20 minutes.
“They’ve got to be ready to start any game. If they do that, they’ll be fine. You could see there was not a lot of difference between the teams after those first eight minutes.”
‘We have to take responsibility’
Price spoke last week about his concerns over the way they’re starting games slowly and he feels his players have to stand up and be counted in time for the next two fixtures.
He added: “We caused our own problems against Edinburgh. We didn’t start the game mentally correctly and that’s the bottom line.
“We haven’t started games too well this season so far. We’ve been slow out the blocks, waiting to see what other teams are doing and that’s not good enough.
Full Time ⚽@EdinburghCityFC 2-0 Elgin City
It ends in defeat in the Capital as Danny Handling's double gives Edinburgh the 3 points.
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 27, 2021
“We have got to take responsibility for how we start games and that’s something we really will be working on over the next few weeks.
“The game on Friday was fairly even after losing the goals. We created a number of decent chances in the first half to try and get back in the game, but, ultimately, we didn’t deserve anything from it because of the way we started.
“We have wasted another opportunity and another game through (lack of) mental toughness.
“I have to take my share of responsibility for that – it’s me who puts them out there. They’ve got to be ready.
“It’s taking us 10-15 minutes to get going, even against Forfar and Albion Rovers recently, and it’s something that needs to be addressed.”
‘We need to look at ourselves’ – Spark
Captain Euan Spark was equally as scathing about the players’ nightmare start in the capital.
He said: “To concede a goal inside the first 20 seconds is not good enough.
“We came back and created some chances in the end, but by that stage the game was over after being two down after 20 minutes.
“The first 20 minutes killed it. It’s all well going on to play well after that, but it’s too late by then. At 2-0, they sat in and we got space to play.
“We need to look at ourselves. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve not started well enough and on Friday it came back to bite us.”
Pars clash can fire Elgin up – Spark
Spark feels taking on Dunfermline, who slipped to the bottom of the Championship last weekend, is the kind of test to get the hosts firing this Saturday in the Challenge Cup.
He added: “It’s a big game, but probably one we need. We haven’t played well apart from against Albion Rovers, so we need to bounce back.
“What a challenge it is – against a Championship side.”
Friday’s match in Edinburgh was also the last for assistant manager Keith Gibson as he bows out after three-and-a-half years alongside Price.
Keith Gibson ⚽️
Saturday's game against Forfar saw Keith Gibson take in his final home game as Assistant Manager.
After 136 games as part of the management team, we hope things end on a high against Edinburgh City on Friday ⚫️⚪️https://t.co/90NWVzCgIQ pic.twitter.com/XpPPX0lYyK
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 23, 2021
Dundee-based Gibson said regular travel commitments were the main reason for him leaving the Black and Whites. He has been replaced by former Elgin player and ex-Brora Rangers boss Steven Mackay.
📽️ KEITH GIBSON
After his last game in the City dugout on Friday night, departing Assistant Manager Keith Gibson reflected on his three and a half years at the club ⚽️
Full Interview 👉https://t.co/r7gPVdksBc
All the best @kgibson8 ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/a0ZiNuhy6t
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 29, 2021