Elgin City manager Gavin Price warned his team they are not safe from relegation yet following the 2-0 home defeat to Stenhousemuir.
Cowdenbeath’s 3-2 win at Annan took them to within nine points of second-bottom Elgin with three games to play, meaning the Black and Whites need a point to ensure their place in League Two next season.
“Of course we are not safe yet,” Price said. “We still need points on the board but it’s not just about that, it’s about catching Albion Rovers and Stirling Albion.
“We’ve got the opportunity next week to go down to Forthbank and we will have a good week of training and make sure we are up for the battle.
“Stenhousemuir deserved to win the game because it felt like they wanted to win it more than we did.
“We dropped our levels from the last three home games and although we did have a couple of chances before they scored their second goal, it wasn’t good enough.”
Stenny got to grips with the game from the off with Adam Brown’s volley well saved by Daniel Hoban.
On 14 minutes full back Adam Corbett broke forward and shot from the edge of the area with Hoban diving right to again make the save.
However from Brown’s corner on the right, Corbett was completely unmarked to score an easy header.
Brown nodded over from a Sean Crighton flick as the Warriors chased a second, and Crighton had an effort saved by Hoban.
A Stenny free kick on the stroke of half time saw Brown curl into the side netting with the away side well on top.
Elgin claimed for a penalty at the start of the second half when Josh Peters appeared to be pushed but referee Steven Reid ignored the home appeals.
The home side did show more attacking threat with Rabin Omar twice denied by keeper David Wilson.
Substitute Matheus Machado was next to force a save with Omar denied by a block on the rebound.
Ross Draper then had an effort cleared off the line as City’s frustration grew.
And their fate was sealed six minutes from time when a freak goal sealed Stenny’s victory.
Here is the team lineup for todays match against @StenhousemuirFC
Come on City! 🖤⚽️ pic.twitter.com/Wv0ez4WkoB
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) April 9, 2022
Michael Miller’s cross from deep on left curled over the head of keeper Hoban and dropped under the bar to finish the game off.
Hoban took the responsibility for the second goal and was disappointed to end a run of three clean sheets in a row.
“I’m obviously disappointed with the goal,” he said. “It was pretty self-explanatory, I just got caught underneath it.
“It was comfortably my ball and I took a step towards it and as soon as that happens I’ve misjudged the flight of it and it’s gone in.
“We’ve got to stay positive. It’s not mathematically impossible that we can finish bottom so we’ve got to dig deep next week and try to kick on until the end of the season.
“It was a mile off what we’ve been doing over the past four or five games and we’ve got to put this right as a collective.”
