Elgin City manager Gavin Price said his team is being forced to play uglier football due to the current state of their Borough Briggs pitch.
City were held to a 1-1 draw by Albion Rovers in a match played in torrential rain and strong winds.
Both teams struggled to master a pitch that cut up heavily as the game wore on, and Price says his team needs to adapt when playing on home soil.
“It’s never really had a chance to recover with all the weather we’ve had over the winter,” he said.
“Sometimes we’ve got to play an uglier style of football to try and do things in games.
“That’s not particularly what we want to do but we need to adapt to it.
“It was really difficult out there today.”
Albion Rovers fans at Elgin City today@albionrovers pic.twitter.com/kh9ifdnR6Z
— Scottish Football Away Days (@days_scottish) February 4, 2023
Albion led through a sensational 30-yard free kick from Charlie Reilly which Price applauded.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to take your hat off and it was a fantastic strike,” he added.
“But in the build-up to the free kick we certainly could have prevented it but we had a couple of slack passes.
“I felt we were a wee bit unfortunate to be a goal down at half time and I backed us to turn it around in the second half.
“The underfoot conditions certainly deteriorated as the match went on, which didn’t help out cause when players were losing their footing at times.
“But we kept going and we needed all 16 players today because of the conditions and all 16 played their part.”
Mitchell Taylor and Darryl McHardy were recalled to the Elgin team from the starting line-up in the previous Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Stenhousemuir.
Rovers used the elements in the first half to dominate with Joe Bevan inches away from connecting with a third minute Ewan Wilson cross.
Charlie Reilly curled a free kick just past from wide on the left while Elgin had a Taylor goal ruled out for offside.
On 22 minutes Reilly opened the scoring for Albion with a stunning 30-yard free kick high into the left side of the goal.
City could have levelled on the stroke of half time when Darryl McHardy’s free kick was parried out by Rovers keeper Jack Leighfield but the visitors managed to clear the loose ball.
Seven minutes after the break Elgin captain Brian Cameron blazed over when a Rory MacEwan shot was blocked into his path.
It took a disputed penalty award to get City on level terms after 73 minutes.
Rovers scorer Reilly was adjudged to have fouled Angus Mailer just inside the box, with the visitors furiously disputing the decision.
Russell Dingwall stepped up to fire the kick home, much to the home side’s relief.
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Here's our starting XI to face Albion Rovers.
Come on the City! ⚽️⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/HGNYp5pFv7
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) February 4, 2023
Top scorer Kane Hester was denied a late winner by a near post save from Leighfield.
Elgin defender Ross Draper admitted his team needs to sharpen up their home form if they are to stay in the play-offs chase.
“That’s something that we need to work on together as a group and put our finger on why that’s the case,” he said.
“We know away from home we have a tendency to be able to sit in a little bit more and teams will come at us, so when you’ve got the threat of Kane Hester going forward, that’s how we’ve managed to get results.
“So we need to find a way that if teams sit in we can break them down and win more games at home.
“Today I don’t include that because of the conditions. It was one of them where it was just a battle and both teams will take a point.
“We do need to get back to winning games at home if we want to be there or thereabouts.”
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