Charlie Charlesworth is urging Elgin City to show no despondency after being denied a return to winning ways by Stenhousemuir in midweek.
City were on track to end a six-match winless streak on Tuesday after Aaron Reid put them ahead, however, Ross Forbes’ stunning late equaliser ensured a 1-1 draw at Borough Briggs.
Nevertheless, the result was enough to move Elgin off the foot of League Two, a point above Albion Rovers.
Despite the late setback, Charlesworth took huge encouragement from City’s performance in their first outing since the weekend dismissal of boss Gavin Price.
Charlesworth, who is in interim charge alongside Ross Draper and Stevie Dunn, feels there is plenty to build on ahead of Saturday’s visit of Forfar Athletic.
He said: “It’s important we don’t get down about it, because we’ve got to keep pushing on.
“Generally speaking, although Thomas McHale had a couple of great saves, we had some glorious opportunities on the night. It’s the story of the second half of our season to a certain extent.
“I’m really proud of what we did. We were very organised and very willing.
“The lads have been very resilient, and a worldie just killed it for us in the last couple of minutes.
“I’m disappointed because three points would have been massive for us just now.
“We can take loads from it, but let’s not get too carried away. We will take one game at a time.
“We were all a bit uptight and nervous about the Stenhousemuir game, but the lads are great.
“We have talked things through – Ross Draper has done a lot of work towards this and everybody has been supporting him, along with Stevie and I.
“It was a good night in the respect of getting a reaction and being organised.
“Obviously we lost a couple of points in the last minute.
“We have told them not to be down, as we could have got nothing – we got a point and we will now move on to Saturday.”
Charlesworth looking for more potency in front of goal
On-loan Aberdeen striker Reid netted in his first start since February, to end Elgin’s run of 486 minutes without finding the net.
Charlesworth hopes his side can rediscover their firepower in their crucial upcoming four matches.
He added: “Aaron did very well. We played him either left or right of Kane Hester, and we just kept switching it around.
“He just ran out of legs by the end.
“There are always things we can improve on, but we needed a bit of height in the team, and Aaron obviously comes into that bracket.
“We can’t ask for any more than what we have been given. I suppose, if we are being critical, we just need to take the opportunities we create and get a bit of a cushion.
“If we got a couple of goals on Tuesday, that one doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.”
Elgin will assess attacker Dylan Lawrence, who suffered a head collision with the post during the early stages of Tuesday’s game.
Having made four changes for the Stenny encounter, Charlesworth feels he has plenty food for thought going into the Loons match this weekend.
Charlesworth added: “As we all say, it’s a good headache to have.
“We will train on Thursday and have a look at everything. We will see what system Forfar will be playing, and we will see what we need to do.
“At the end of the day, everybody earned their space on Tuesday to a certain extent.
“The guys that came on did well, too.
“We need to keep everybody interested and keep things ticking over. Maybe other boys will come in and do a different job in different areas.”
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