Elgin City 1 Forres Mechanics 3: Pre-season starts in Moray as Can-Cans beat City
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PRE-SEASON ahead of the 2023-24 campaign got under way last night with Forres Mechanics defeating Elgin City 3-1.
Forres boss Steven MacDonald saw plenty to encourage him in his side's performance, although he isn't reading too much into the result.
Elgin City boss Ross Draper – who himself played 85 minutes – admitted his side are short on numbers and are early in their preparations.
"It's good to get the first game played," MacDonald said. "Obviously Elgin are very early days and you wouldn't read too much into it.
"But it's encouraging from us, because in training the other night we were rusty and we were sort of panicking coming into it.
"The new boys did well and it's good to get a proper game for them. We've got a lot of pre-season to do but that's the same for everyone, but it's good to be back playing."
City took the lead after five minutes through Matt Jamieson, before Craig Mackenzie's double and a Ben Barron penalty had the Cans 3-1 up before half-time.
Both sides fielded a large number of youngsters in the second period, in a game that featured rolling substitutes (players being able to come back on after being subbed off).
City boss Ross Draper said: "We have only been in for three days training. It was a rusty performance.
"We were good for 15 or 20 minutes but the goal spooked us a bit and we made mistakes all over and the first half got away from us.
"You have to expect that from game one, so there are no panic stations at all. It's about building fitness."
City host Rothes, again at The Gleaner Arena, on Tuesday, with Forres' next pre-season game against Brora Rangers.
