cinch Scottish League Two: Bonnyrigg Rose 2, Elgin City 3
The season so far for Bonnyrigg Rose can be summed up in the blink of an eye. Ball back to goalkeeper, fumble and in nips an opposition striker to bury the ball in the net from close range. Fans stunned and Rose 2-0 down after 21 minutes.
Rosey Posey looked dead and buried at half-time when they trudged off the pitch 3-0 down to Elgin City. Basically, soft goals are costing the newly-promoted club dear.
The newly-promoted Midlothian combine have now lost their last four games, three in the cinch Scottish League Two, and are now seventh in the ten-strong table with 13 points, the same as eighth-placed Annan Athletic and two ahead of second-bottom Albion Rovers and bottom club Forfar Athletic.
Forfar, incidentally, lost 4-1 at home to Annan and Albion Rovers held former league leaders, Stirling Albion, 1-1 at Clifton Hill while Rose were being edged at home.
Worryingly, Rose have only won three of their seven home matches and manager Robbie Horn (pictured talking to Rose TV by Nigel Duncan) was asked post-match what the squad would be working on in training this week. His answer? “Where do you want me to start.”
However, the club should take positives from their second-half performance in which they claimed two goals and put the Elgin City defence under pressure.
The mountain was ultimately too high to climb and it is back on the training ground on Tuesday, working hard and trying to find the character to arrest the slump.
The story of the match is simple. A collision in the box between goalkeeper Mark Weir and Kane Hester resulted in a penalty. Ice cool Russell Dingwall sent Weir the wrong way and he calmly side-footed the ball into the opposite corner. Time eight minutes.
Dingwall capitalised on a defensive blunder to make it 2-0 after 21 minutes and the same player completed his glory treble with a third two minutes from the break, also from the penalty spot, slamming the ball straight after Weir had dived.
Credit to Rose, they came out with intent in the second-half, and Conor Doan was rewarded after 48 minutes, his first goal for Rose, and it came after a Kieran Mitchell shot was blocked and a lay-off from Kevin Smith.
George Hunter claimed No 2 with 81 minutes on the clock. Neil Martyniuk picked up the ball near half way, drove forward and passed into the box. Hunter gathered the ball and tturned before smashing it home.
Joy for success-hungry home fans anxious to see their men snap their poor recent run. Rose upped the pressure and had the Moray side were pinned back, but they refused to crack, their uncompromising defenders standing firm, and they emerged with the spoils to be fourth in the table.
Rose must pick themselves up for the visit to Forfar next Saturday (15.00) and that game is followed by another fixture on the road, at Stenhousemuir, on Saturday, November 19. It’s a tough league and a run of defeats make it that much tougher.
Horn’s face spoke volumes and the manager said: “The game was done first-half. We shot ourselves in the foot with what we did in the first-half. It is not good enough, not acceptable and yes we got back in the game second-half, and we might have got something from the game, but it does not really make up for the performance in the first-half.
“Soft goals again and basic errors to be perfectly honest. Basic errors have cost us. We have worked hard in training and worked hard in our shape and we showed a bit of hunger, a bit of desire and a bit of pride and those are the only positives we take out of the second-half,.
“After the first-half, we did not deserve anything at all. I have no idea at this moment in time about what we will be working on in training this week, but we will try and pick the boys up again on Tuesday, work as hard as we have in the last two weeks.
“If we can take the things we have been doing into games, and even that second-half performance, hopefully we can see the tide turning.”
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