It is now or never for Elgin City as they face a season-defining run of games, according to Darryl McHardy.
A controversial 2-1 home defeat to Stranraer on Saturday has left Gavin Price’s side in eighth place in League Two.
The Black and Whites are nine points clear of bottom side Cowdenbeath and trail fourth-placed Edinburgh City by 11 points in the race for the final play-off place.
McHardy knows his side has to put a run together now if they are to mount a late challenge – starting with tonight’s match against Annan Athletic at Borough Briggs.
He said: “We know the next four games will define our season.
“We’re playing teams in and around in the league in Annan, Cowdenbeath, Stirling Albion and Albion Rovers, and if we can win the next four games we can push up the table.
“If we don’t win those games then we know we could find ourselves fighting to stay off the bottom.”
Weekend loss a sore one to take
Elgin are looking to bounce back from their home defeat on Saturday with the Moray men left frustrated at a highly contentious penalty being given against Ross Draper, while having two strong penalty appeals of their own dismissed.
City also had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside.
McHardy, who scored his side’s consolation goal, said: “It was one of the worst games I’ve been involved in. It was a crazy match.
“There was no flow to the game as play seemed to stop every five minutes and we were obviously disappointed to lose like that.
“It was horrible, but we know we weren’t great. I don’t think we deserved to lose the game, but I’m not sure we did enough to win either.
“A draw would have been a fair result, but we need to be better in front of goal.”
City boss looking for consistency
City boss Gavin Price, who last week collected the League Two manager of the month award for January, has challenged his side to put together a run of wins to push themselves into contention for the play-offs.
The Elgin manager believes his side can still mount a late challenge, but knows they need to rack up the wins in the weeks ahead.
He said: “We need to try and replicate the form we had in December and January.
“It’s clear we need to have another one of these runs.
“We need to show that consistency again if we want to get back in contention.”
