Elgin City manager Barry Smith saw his team strike late to earn a 1-1 League Two draw against Stenhousemuir – but was disappointed to come away with just a point.
With Stenny playing more than half of the game at Borough Briggs with 10 men following Ross Meechan’s dismissal, the Warriors thwarted home efforts to level Adam Brown’s 29th-minute opener until Elgin’s Rory MacEwan struck with four minutes to go.
“I thought for the first half hour before we conceded the goal, we were the better team and created the better chances,” Smith said.
“When we conceded, we lost our way for 5-10 minutes and Tom (McHale) had two great saves to keep us in it at that stage.
“We didn’t put enough quality cross balls into the box, but we did get our goal from a good cross, and then potentially should have had a penalty from a cross ball after that.
“If we had done more of that we could have had more opportunities.
“But we did have chances to win the game, so it’s frustrating that we’ve only come away with a point.”
The result means Elgin remain bottom of the fourth-tier.
New Elgin signing Robert Jones named on bench for Stenny fixture
Elgin manager Smith welcomed back captain Matthew Cooper into his starting line-up at right-back, while former boss Ross Draper slotted into a defensive midfield role at Borough Briggs.
Smith also handed a place on the bench to his latest signing, former Clyde striker Robert Jones, whose last club was Finn Harps in Ireland.
For both Elgin and Stenny it was the first fixture of the month, and City’s first home game since defeating Dumbarton in mid-September.
The first half took time to get going with Elgin looking more of an attacking force in the first quarter.
However, three long range MacEwan strikes failed to hit the target and on-loan Aberdeen striker Liam Harvey saw a 20-yarder comfortably saved by Darren Jamieson.
It was against the run of play when Stenny scored a fortunate opener just before the half-hour.
Brown’s 25-yard blast took a wicked deflection off Elgin defender Cooper and wrong-footed Tom McHale to spin into the corner of the net.
The Warriors got an immediate lift from the goal and within 90 seconds Brown almost doubled his tally with a low blast from the edge of the box which struck the base of the post and bounced off McHale for a corner.
In a frenzied spell of pressure, McHale dropped a free-kick, then managed to parry a Matty Aitken drive, before a second strike from Nat Wedderburn crashed off the right-hand post.
At the other end, City’s second Aberdeen loan player, Blair McKenzie, saw an effort from Ryan MacLeman’s corner touched over by Jamieson.
Aitken had the ball in the Elgin net again on 37 minutes – but it was ruled offside when he turned in O’Reilly’s feed.
Stenny were then reduced to 10 men five minutes before half time when Harvey spun away from defender Ross Meechan, who fouled him 40 yards from goal, and referee Duncan Nicolson decided the Dons youngster had been denied a clear run on goal and showed Meechan a straight red card.
Stenny held their advantage to the break and brought on full-back Edin Lynch for attacker Matty Yates for the second half.
As expected, City pressed hard at the start of the second period but were almost caught on the break on 57 minutes when Michael Anderson released scorer Brown, who fired wide with just McHale to beat.
It was Brown who was giving City their greatest concern and he worked another opening on the edge of the box before curling wide on 66 minutes.
The north side should have levelled on 72 minutes when Brian Cameron charged down a Stenny clearance and the ball fell perfectly for Harvey – who fired past Jamieson but off the left-hand post with Elgin’s best chance of the game to that point by far.
New boy Jones was thrust into the action along with fellow frontman Ben Barron in the final 15 minutes.
And the pressure told on 86 minutes when City drew level. Owen Cairns crossing from the right and, in a scramble in the danger area, MacEwan reacted with an eight-yard drive high into the net.
City had a penalty claim in time added on when sub Barron went to ground on the turn, but ref Nicolson waved away loud appeals.
Barron then headed wide and fellow sub Taylor lashed over in a frantic finish as Elgin tried in vain to find a winner.
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