Elgin City manager Gavin Price is looking for his side to be more ruthless in both penalty areas after a frustrating 1-0 loss at Stranraer.
The Black and Whites were punished for poor defending as Craig Ross scored the only goal of the game to give Stranraer their first win in six matches, with the defeat compounded by the dismissal of City striker Kane Hester midway through the second half.
A dejected Price said: “We cannot keep failing to take our opportunities in front of goal and then giving away sloppy goals like we did.
“We have to be more ruthless in both boxes. We’re controlling a lot of games but the final piece of defending our penalty area well and converting our own opportunities is the final piece of the jigsaw which has been missing.
“We’ve got to put that right.”
City raced out the traps at Stair Park but could not make their early pressure count.
Having reached the break goalless Stranraer broke the deadlock two minutes into the second half as Ross scrambled the ball home for his first goal for the club.
Elgin responded strongly to going behind with Euan Spark heading wide before Jack Baker denied City’s Tom Grivosti
City’s hopes of getting something from the game suffered a blow when Kane Hester was sent off for a second bookable offence after catching Stranraer’s goalscorer Ross with his arm.
Price said: “We started really positively but we didn’t take our chances. It’s been a familiar tale for us recently of playing okay but not putting it all together.
“We didn’t play terribly well on Saturday but we didn’t deserve to come away with nothing. We deserved at least a draw from the game but we were guilty of not getting the first goal and then had to chase the game.
“Even after Kane was sent off we created chances but we just couldn’t take them.”
The defeat leaves Elgin in ninth in League Two, eight points off a play-off place but the Price is glad his side will have an early chance to bounce back when they welcome Edinburgh City to Borough Briggs on Tuesday.
He said: “We’ll be without Kane due to his red card but this is our game in hand and we have to make sure it counts against Edinburgh.
“There was a huge sense of frustration at how the Stranraer game went and we want to put it right.
“It has been a frustrating season as a whole so far for us but we know it doesn’t take a lot of points to get us back up the table and in a position where we feel we should be.
“But we cannot continue to pass up these opportunities to pick up points in games.”
