It’s a third trip to Borough Briggs this season as we face Elgin City on Saturday. The sides met in the SPFL Trust Trophy back in August, where Elgin ran out 3-1 winners. The other meeting in the highlands finished 2-1 to the hosts. Ochilview has hosted this fixture twice this season. A 3-3 draw followed by a 2-0 Warriors win were the results.

Both sides will be looking to strengthen their play offs ambitions, following defeats last weekend. The Warriors currently sit 5th in the table whilst City sit 5 points behind in 7th, with a game in hand.

This will be the 42nd meeting between the sides, with the Warriors winning 17 of the previous 41 games, whilst Elgin have won 19. We have won 6 out of 21 meetings at Borough Briggs and have outscored Elgin across all the meetings 69 to 65 goals.

The website caught up with Gary Naysmith ahead of Saturday’s match. Last Saturday saw the Warriors lose 2-1 to East Fife whilst Elgin were beaten 4-1 by Annan Athletic. With both sides looking to regain form in the battle for the playoffs, how is Gary feeling?

“We’re trying to get back to a positive result. I think it’s important in this league ,especially this stage of the season, you don’t want to a run of losing consecutive games too often. So that’s what we’ll be trying to avoid. There’s still a bit of disappointment and anger when the players come in on Tuesday. We had a really good video analysis meeting for a good 30 minutes, where we went over a few things that we were unhappy with, predominantly in the second. 

If I’m honest I didn’t focus too much on the first half when I watched the game back myself because the problems started in the second half so we had to analyse that and let the players know what we weren’t happy with and what we expect and we’ll be looking for a reaction when we go to Elgin.”

Over the last few weeks, Gary and Brown have mentioned in their interviews that we’ve had a good half and a poor half, so it must be about improving on that, aiming towards a good 90 minutes?

“It’s difficult to control a game for 90 minutes in this league because all teams are quite evenly balanced but what we are looking for is a greater consistency in a match, rather than it being 45 minutes for the opposition then 45 minutes for us. Can we control it for 60 or 70 the it be a battle for 20 minutes where the opposition have a 15 or 20 minute spell, which in general, they always will have unless you are a really top team, it’s hard to control the full 90 minutes. So we’re looking for more consistency within the team within the 90 minutes and we’re looking for more consistency from individuals as well. Some weeks we’ve got players playing well and then other weeks aren’t doing as well. Then withing some games we can have a good first half and then a difficult second half. 

We need far greater consistency because if you’re not consistent within your performances, it’s going to be very difficult to get the results we’re looking for.” 

MATCHDAY INFORMATION

Kick-off: 3pm

Match Entry: Tickets for Saturday’s game can be bought HERE or you can pay at the turnstiles.

Stand Adult – £15 (Tickets will ONLY be available via Fanbase)

Ground Adult – £13

Stand Concession – £10 (Tickets will ONLY be available via Fanbase)

Ground Concession – £8

Getting There: Click here for details of how to get to Elgin City by car or train. Contact Andy McPhate on Twitter for the Supporter’s Bus info

Referee: Alastair Grieve

Assistants: Steven Wilson & Robert Thomson

 

LEAGUE INFORMATION

Bonnyrigg Rose vs East Fife

Dumbarton vs Albion Rovers

Elgin City vs Stenhousemuir

Forfar Athletic vs Annan Athletic

Stranraer vs Stirling Albion