It’s a return to league action following the weekend’s Scottish Cup match against Livingston, as we welcome Elgin City to Ochilview.
It’s the fourth meeting between the two sides this season, with two league meetings and one Challenge Cup match making up the number. City are undefeated against the Warriors this season, winning both games at Borough Briggs whilst the previous meeting at Ochilview finished 3-3.
This will be the 41st meeting between the sides, with the Warriors winning 16 of the previous 40 games, whilst Elgin have won 19. We have won 10 out of 19 meetings at Ochilview and have outscored Elgin across all the meetings 67 to 65 goals.
As always, our website spoke with Gary Naysmith ahead of Saturday’s game. We asked Gary how he was feeling heading into the league match:
“I’m looking forward to it. The Scottish Cup match was a welcome game but the league is our bread and butter and we need to try and continue the good form shown in the few games so far”
We’ve met Elgin 3 times so far this season, with no victories so far, is that something that Gary and the team are focusing on?
“It’s not something we have really thought about. We take each game as it comes. If we had beaten a team 3 times, it wouldn’t make us more confident heading into the game. We just need to focus on us. I’m a different manager, getting the players playing in a different way so the previous results aren’t material to me.
We know what Elgin have got. Kane Hester is a very good player and is always a goal threat but they have other good players that some times fly under the radar. In my time at Edinburgh we played against them maybe six or seven times in the space of 12 months. A lot of their squad is still there so it’s a squad I’m quite familiar with, which will hopefully help us. They’ve added in a few players so we’ve had to do a bit of homework on them. Just like normal, we’ve informed the players of certain things and things they need to be wary of. We’re mainly concentrating on ourselves, what we can do and it’s a game where we need to go and try and get some points on the board and close the gap between the two sides.”
The three matches under Naysmith has saw positive performances for periods of the games, Saturday’s game must be about continuing with the level of performances but aiming to extend the periods.
“There’s been parts of the games where we’ve been good and there’s parts where we could do better. We aren’t naïve enough to think that we are where we want to be yet, so we need to keep working at that. The players are still taking on information about what we want them to do.
Saturday’s game was different because Livingston had a lot of possession and we had to defend more than we would normally like. We want to try and get back to us being on the front foot and taking our game to the opposition. The lads trained really hard on Tuesday night and had a more tactical session this evening (Thursday) with the aim of the boys being ready to go on Saturday.”
Conor Brennan is the only player unavailable with Curtis Lyle returning to the squad following being cup tied last week.
MATCHDAY INFORMATION
Kick-off: 3pm
Match Entry: You can pay at the gate at Ochilview using cash. If you need to pay by card, you should purchase your ticket online here.
- Adults: £14.00
- Concessions: £9.00
- Child: £5.00
Getting Here: Click here for details of how to get to Ochilview by car or train.
Ochilview Guide: Click here for your one stop shop for all info that you’ll need for a trip to Ochilview
Referee: Dan McFarlane
Assistants: Alastair Taylor & James Duffy
LEAGUE INFORMATION
Albion Rovers vs Forfar Athletic
Annan Athletic vs East Fife
Dumbarton vs Bonnyrigg Rose
Stenhousemuir vs Elgin City
Stirling Albion vs Stranraer
