Elgin City manager Allan Hale speaks after his team's 1-0 win over League 2 leaders East Fife at Borough Briggs.
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00:00Particularly the second half, I thought the players really showed up today and played
00:04with a desire that we know the players are capable of. If we're going to be critical,
00:09it's that we've not scored that second goal and tried to add the cushion. When you don't
00:15come out, you've got that 20-minute period on top in the second half where it was three
00:19or four really good chances in the space of a 10-minute period and the goal doesn't come.
00:26I've seen that script written before and you just think you don't get that killer second
00:30goal in that period when you're on top, especially against a team like East Fife who will always
00:35fight to the end. You look at how many late goals they've scored this season when they've
00:39come from positions where they've been behind or positions where they've had a point and
00:44they've come back and turned the game around. You're always conscious of that and I think
00:48the substitutions were reflective of that in terms of how we try to manage the game
00:52and match them up and not leave ourselves exposed defensively. But what you saw was
00:57the players putting bodies on the line and really going in and attacking the ball inside
01:01the 18-yard box and having players like Jake and Draper and Soapy, who's just been absolutely
01:07phenomenal. He's played four or five different positions. Kyle Girvan, who's playing injured
01:12but came back at full-back today and gets an all-important goal. So many good performances
01:17and we don't single anyone out. It's very much a collective and a team effort. Coming
01:21up against East Fife, we needed that aggression, we needed that physicality, we needed that
01:26hype, we needed that presence. East Fife have got a lot of physicality in their team, a
01:31lot of experience in their team and players that have that know-how in certain moments
01:34and especially in both boxes. So we had to pick the team with that in mind today. I think
01:40the players deserved it, as I said, over the piece. A tight game, as we knew it would be,
01:44but I thought the right team won.
01:46On a fuller bench now, gradually you're getting the bodies back. Jake and Ross Draper, you're
01:51getting match time today and a quick turnaround to Tuesday night's game against Bonnie Rigg.
01:55Yes, exactly. That's something that we need to be conscious of as well. These players
01:59have been out since October, I think. Jake's been in training now for two or three weeks,
02:04so we've been careful with him. We've made sure that we've tried to manage the gradual
02:09increase in terms of the intensity and the output that he's put in training. But he came
02:12through the week fine. It was two pretty difficult sessions in terms of ground that was covered
02:18and he came through that fine. So we knew he'd be ready today. I thought he was outstanding
02:23for someone that's been out for October, with the quality of his life and trouting 20-odd
02:29goals. Austin comes on, Rob Jones, we know what he can do and he's capable from the wide
02:34areas are really good, but body on the line, attack things in the air, great set-pieces
02:38and just a warrior. So, a delight to see him back in and you can see the lift that
02:42he gave the team today. We're not far away now, Draper's back in now, it's a couple of
02:48weeks for him as well. Ryan and Rory, great to see them back in the squad as well. They've
02:52also been back in for three weeks. Jack's not a million miles away either, so the next
02:57two or three weeks we should see him integrated back in as well, hopefully. We're certainly
03:01getting the bodies back and there's still time in the window, so we'll see if there's
03:06work to be done.
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