2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Craig Christie)
A troubled start, Scotland internationals as players and managers, an attempted takeover, three failed promotion bids, an email fiasco and flirts with relegation . It’s the story of Elgin City Football Club’s first thousand games in Scottish league football. City’s team bus must have clocked up close to a million miles on a journey which began with their first-ever Division 3 fixture in August 2000, reaching the milestone of their 1000th game in all competitions at Stranraer last weekend.
It has not been a smooth trek for the Borough Briggs club, with far more lows than highs along the way as they have found themselves rooted in Scottish football’s fourth tier throughout the adventure. Allan Hale is the most recent of 11 permanent managers appointed with the same task of bringing a level of progress to the club - and it has never been easy. Three of them took the club to the promotion play-offs, falling short at the semi-finals stage.
Others struggled to lift City away from the division’s basement, and the prospect of a return to Highland League football loomed large on occasions. In the cups, one swashbuckling Challenge Cup adventure took the Black and Whites to the quarter-finals, while a recent Scottish Cup foray came within moments of making history, so close to equalling the club’s 1968 achievement of making the last eight of the competition. In a year’s time, Elgin will celebrate 25 years in the Scottish League and their current squad assembled expertly by Hale over the past eight months has the potential to reach uncharted waters - could that ever-elusive promotion come to fruition? A look back over those thousand games takes you on a proper rollercoaster ride.
It’s a tale of 323 City victories (two in penalty shoot-outs) and 491 defeats, 1382 goals scored and 1786 conceded. It all began at the start of the century when Elgin, a struggling Highland League side at the time, channelled their efforts into gaining Scottish League entry and at the third time of asking, made a successful bid along with Peterhead to join the ranks of the country’s elite divisions. With the late Denis Miller, a former Aberdeen FC director, coming in as chairman and Alex Caldwell, assistant manager to Steve Paterson at Caley Thistle for several successful seasons, appointed as their first SFL boss, City didn’t know at the time how ill-prepared they were for a shot at glory.
Match number one came on a warm afternoon at Glebe Park, Brechin, with the lion’s share of the 509 crowd cheering on the league new boys - and jumping for joy in the 24th minute. Striker Mark Slythe made history by scoring Elgin’s first-ever Scottish league goal, before the hosts hit back to seize a 2-1 victory. The City team that day was: Martin Pirie, Craig Milne, Jordan MacDonald, Alan Morris, Lee O’Brien, George Russell, Neil Whyte, Stuart Cameron, Colin Milne, Mark Slythe and Steve Clinton.
Steven Ellis and Peter Maguire came on as second half substitutes. A 3-0 League Cup defeat at Cowdenbeath followed three days later, then the big occasion of Borough Briggs’ first Scottish League match when 1552 supporters witnessed Hamilton Accies win 2-0. Current Elgin City women’s football team manager Michael Morrison made his SFL debut in that game, and was sent off for two bookings inside the first 15 minutes.
It would be October before City achieved their first victory as a Scottish league club, in their tenth match. A tough start, with three draws and six defeats was punctuated by a 2-0 success at home to Dumbarton. Some hope emerged when the Black and Whites picked up their first win on the road in their next match at East Stirling, but it was a false dawn as they only managed three more victories over the course of the entire campaign, finishing bottom in their debut season with just 31 goals scored in 39 outings.
The most remarkable thing to emerge from that debut season was that a particularly cold winter meant that the Moray club went 101 days between home league fixtures, waiting from November until March to get a Division 3 fixture played at Borough Briggs. Season two was more prosperous, as Caldwell recruited former Dundee striker Ian Gilzean and brought back defensive hero Willie Furphy to the club - he was a stalwart in the team’s Highland league title-stripping 1992-93 term. A 4-1 win over Peterhead, Craig Tully scoring twice, was a highlight as Elgin managed 13 wins - including a first-ever three-in-a-row - and Gilzean scored 13 goals to guide the team to a sixth-place finish.
In the midst of all this, Caldwell departed as manager in December and was replaced the following March by former Aberdeen, Rangers and Scotland defender David Robertson at the helm. Elgin’s 100th match in all competitions took place in the grandest of settings, the national stadium of Hampden where Division3 rivals Queen’s park played, and the Spiders claimed a 3-2 win. ‘Robbo’ gradually turned over the playing staff but it was to prove to be an unsuccessful stint.
In his first full campaign, a 3-0 win over Peterhead covered up the cracks as City went 15 matches without a single win - 11 of those defeats - and again managed just five wins all season as they just finished above a poor East Stirling team at the foot of the table. The club hit the headlines in October, 2003 when Robertson signed his former Rangers team-mate, ex-Scotland goalkeeper Andy Goram to fix an emergency between the sticks. The late legend conceded five on his debut at home to Albion Rovers and managed only a handful of matches for the Black and Whites, was never on the winning side and soon shuffled into retirement.
Elgin nearly emulated their previous year’s winless streak, going 14 matches before defeating East Stirling in January. They ended with even less points than the previous campaign, with the constant of having Shire below them as a comfort blanket. The Black and Whites conceded more than 100 goals over the course of a dismal season.
Robertson and his assistant Kenny Black introduced a skillseeker programme to the club, with a crop of talented teenager operating full-time at Borough Briggs. One of them, Iain Vigurs, made his first team debut at 16 before embarking on a successful career in the Premiership. But when Black also attempted a club takeover in 2005, with ambitious plans to redevelop Borough Briggs, he was usurped when Elgin building firm Robertson acquired a majority shareholding, signalling Robertson and Black’s departure from the club - along with their young talent.
By January another former Scotland star, ex-Aberdeen hero Brian Irvine arrived as the next boss and took a struggling City from the lower reaches to the possibility of promotion. Irvine masterminded a run of five straight wins - still Elgin’s best to date in the SPFL - and a sequence of 14 victories in 21 games saw the Black and Whites edging closer to the top four in the first-ever year of Scottish League play-offs. A defeat at eventual champions Cowdenbeath, managed by ex-Dundee United favourite Mixu Paatelainen on the final day saw City just miss out.
Instead of building on their most promising campaign so far, Irvine’s Elgin plunged in the opposite direction. The 2006-07 season started well enough, as Elgin, having lost every single cup tie (19) in their opening six senior campaigns, won 1-0 at Arbroath in the League Cup with future assistant manager Steven MacKay getting the only goal at Gayfield. The story couldn’t be more different in the league, as Elgin broke an unwanted Division 3 record by becoming the first club to lose every one of their first ten fixtures.
With BBC cameras attending to follow the fortunes of ‘Britain’s worst football club’, City broke their duck with a 5-0 thrashing of East Stirling, Martin Johnston scoring a hat-trick. But the writing was on the wall for Irvine and he departed in December, replaced the following month by Robbie Williamson, who bossed Clachnacuddin to the Highland League title. Williamson arrived a week after City suffered a shock 5-4 Scottish Cup loss to Deveronvale.
He could not arrest the team’s slump as they finished ninth for the third time in five years - again Shire were bottom dogs. There was a feeling of deja-vu when Williamson’s side opened the 2007-08 season with seven straight defeats - surely it couldn’t happen again? An incredible turnaround stopped the rot, as City trailed 2-0 to Albion Rovers with five minutes to go but scored three late goals to claim a stunning victory. Within a week, the Black and Whites posted a 6-0 thrashing of East Stirling, still their record margin of victory in the SPFL to this day.
The highs and lows were jagged, winning 4-1 at Dumbarton then crashing 5-0 at home to Stranraer in the same month. That campaign ended in sixth spot with the ignominy of a 5-1 home loss to Stenhousemuir but with one shining light of hope, the appearance of a 16-year-old Brian ‘Soapy’ Cameron from the sub’s bench. Son of a former Borough Briggs favourite of the same nickname, Soapy would go on to break the club’s appearance record and is currently in his 16th season at City, closing in on 600 appearances.
Williamson’s tenure would end in disappointment and controversy the following season. His team suffered some painful results, losing 6-1 at Albion, 5-2 at Shire and 5-0 at league new boys Annan. When they defeated non-league Spartans in the Scottish Cup, the Edinburgh side protested that City keeper Joe Malin hadn’t been registered in time flor the tie and a replay was ordered.
It later transpired that Spartans also had an ineligible player on their bench, but the rematch saw the capital side win on a Monday night at Borough Briggs and Williamson left as manager that week. His replacement was Premier League goalscoring legend Ross Jack, who couldn’t prevent City from finishing bottom of Division 3 for the second time in their nine years of SFL football. The next campaign wasn’t much better, as even a 20-goal haul from the free-scoring Craig Gunn couldn’t prevent City from finishing second bottom for the fifth time in ten years - something had to change.
Seven wins in an eight game run offered fans some optimism in 2010-11, but after riding high in third spot for a while, a slump took them to seventh by the end of the term. Things finally began to click into place in the next season, as Gunn managed another 20+ goals performance, joined in attack by the tallest player in British football, six foot ten inch RAF fireman Paul Millar. That campaign began with possibly City’s best result yet as an SPFL side, winning 2-1 in the Challenge Cup against a Ross County team which went on to gain promotion to the Premier Division that year.
A Valentine’s day massacre saw the Black and Whites smash Peterhead 6-1, kick-starting a run of four straight wins to ease City into the coveted top four. Some fits and starts developed but they held their position to reach the play-offs for the first time. The giant Millar then netted the only goal in the semi-final first leg against Albion Rovers, with Elgin missing a string of opportunities.
In the second leg in Coatbridge, Jack’s men held their advantage until the final half hour when Rovers levelled, and a last minute Scott Chaplain winner for the home team broke Elgin hearts. No-one will forget the next season in Division 3, when the demotion of Glasgow giants Rangers meant league trips to Ibrox for the Black and Whites. In September, Elgin made history by playing in front of the biggest crowd in their entire history as over 46,000 inside Ibrox and a TV audience of millions watched City defender Jamie Duff score a brilliant opening goal, only for the star-studded ‘Gers to hit back for a 5-1 win.
In November, City won 3-1 at home to Berwick in their 500th Scottish League match. As well as their four league matches with Rangers, they drew Ally McCoist’s side in the Scottish Cup losing 3-0 at Ibrox. But Elgin’s first-ever home league match against the Ibrox men was to bring embarrassment to the men in black and white.
The game was scheduled to be screened live on TV, until it was discovered that Elgin officials over-sold tickets for the December match beyond their 3500 Borough Briggs capacity, and the match was postponed. City were fined and censured by the Scottish League and in the rematch, in front of a legal capacity crowd of 3500, Jack’s men twice equalised before succumbing to a 6-2 loss. They would later gain some glory against the eventual champions, as Elgin’s third trip to Ibrox that season in January saw them rescue a stunning 1-1 draw with ten men, helped by a howler from Rangers keeper Neil Alexander in the closing minutes.
Despite a late run of results, City had to settle for fifth spot and missing out on the play-offs. Not even the signing of former Caley Thistle striker Shane Sutherland to partner Gunn in attack could arrest an Elgin slide to the lower reaches the following year, and Jack’s five-year tenure ended in January. His assistant Barry Wilson took over the reins, unable to prevent another ninth place finish in the ten-team division.
With relegation play-offs now introduced to Scottish football, Elgin had to get their act together but a dismal start to the 2014-15 campaign didn’t bode well. Bringing in ex-Rangers veteran Marvin Andrews as a defensive spot-gap backfired, with the Black and Whites leaking goals in alarming fashion. This was highlighted in a Scottish Cup tie with Bo’ness, when City led 3-0 at Borough Briggs only to concede four goals and have to scramble for a 4-4 Borough Briggs draw.
The replay was equally gung-ho, City losing 5-4 to trigger Wilson’s exit after just ten months at the helm, the Moray club hovering dangerously close to the drop zone. Enter former St Johnstone legend Jim Weir as their next manager, backed by another ex-Saint Gavin Price as his assistant. The pair steered City to safety, and the following season was to prove to be Elgin’s most successful to date in the Scottish League.
The Black and Whites led the division early on, then entered a battle with East Fife for the League 2 title in the second half of the season. Buoyed by the talents of current St Johnstone stopper Liam Gordon in a loan spell, and Raith Rovers playmaker Dylan Easton in midfield, Weir side topped thr table in March before a six-game winless streak saw 14 points dropped, leading to the Fifers snatching the title and promotion by a three-point margin. That still meant a second shot at the play-offs for Elgin, but that was ended by home-and-away losses to Clyde and a 5-1 semi-final aggregate loss.
City kept up their form into 2016-17, with Sutherland taking on the scoring mantle from Gunn to plunder a 24-goal tally, supported by 16 goals from midfield from the flourishing Cameron. Elgin were well placed in third spot when the deadly Sutherland picked up a knee injury, and they didn’t win another match as a late-season plunge took them out of the play-offs reckoning. A bombshell was dropped the following year when manager Weir was lured to a move to Forfar, closer to his Perth base.
Assistant Price accepted the job, and pushed the team hard towards the play-offs once again until a run of just two wins from their final ten games saw them fall agonisingly short. Hopes were high of another promotion tilt in 2018-19 with City again forcing their way into the top four before Christmas. An unsettled Sutherland moved to Peterhead, with Kane Hester arriving from Arbroath but taking time to find his shooting boots as another Elgin season faded into the disappointment of an eighth place finish.
Season 2019-20 will long be remembered for the right reasons by City fans, only for fate to conspire against the Borough Briggs men. With Sutherland back from Peterhead and scoring goals like they were going out of fashion, in deadly partnership with Hester, City initially stuttered in the league but produced some sensational form in the Challenge Cup. Wins over Hibs B and a soon-to-be relegated Brechin City earned Elgin a third round trip to Dens Park to take on Dundee, where they recorded a memorable 2-1 win for one of their finest Scottish League highlights.
It didn’t stop there, as a fourth away trip in the competition took them to Airdrie, where late strikes by Hester and Sutherland secured a 2-0 success and a place in the quarter-finals, eventually losing 3-2 at Raith Rovers in a televised match. The turn of the year saw Elgin ramp up their league form with seven wins in nine outings, putting them firmly in third spot and seemingly destined for the play-offs again - until disaster struck. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic led to Scottish football being closed down in March, league leaders Cove Rangers were later awarded the title with no other promotion places up for grabs, and a resurgent Elgin side was grounded in their prime.
Football was not to return until October in front of empty stadiums, but City picked up where they left off by winning their opening four games in the League Cup and League 2 in what became a curtailed campaign due to the late start. After 18 games the division split in two, with the top half going for the league and play-offs. Elgin were fifth, and edged themselves into fourth in the split fixtures to earn what they missed out on the previous year - a third attempt at the play-offs.
This time Edinburgh City stood in the Black and Whites’ way at the semi-final stage and the capital men won 1-0 at Borough Briggs, before the rematch saw two towering Darryl McHardy headers edge Elgin 2-1 ahead and level on aggregate going into the closing seconds. What followed was almost a repeat of the agony of 2012, as on-loan Hibs forward Josh Campbell curled an incredible long range drive into the top corner of Tom McHale’s goal - and Elgin were beaten. The less said about the following three City campaigns, the better.
Each has been spent with the Black and Whites struggling for the majority of the time in the wrong half, finishing ninth in consecutive yearsto narrowly avoid the jaws of the Highland League. Despite a Scottish Cup run to the last sixteen for Price, and denied a place in the quarter-finals for the second time in the club’s history by a last-gasp Ayr United goal at Somerset Park, the Moray club entered a slump. It signalled Price’s departure amidst the worst calendar year in the Black and Whites’ 130-year history, during which they appointed Ross Draper as player boss - lasting just 11 games - and Barry Smith - who then resigned after just nine games at the helm.
During this time, star striker Hester was sold to Montrose and fans favourite McHardy departed for Buckie, chairman Graham Tatters announced he was stepping down from his role due to family reasons, and a record club sponsorship deal was pulled due to a much-publicised email fiasco. In December last year, current boss Hale and his assistant Stefan Laird took on the managerial job and steered the club away from a third consecutive threat of the drop. The managerial appointment also injected real hope into the City supporters, combined with the arrival of forward-thinking new chairman Alan Murray.
With eight summer signings secured, City opened the League 2 campaign with two wins and on the occasion of their 1000th match last week, were denied three on the spin and a best-ever league start by an 87th minute Stranraer equaliser. What comes in the next Elgin City chapter is anyone’s guess, but there is serious optimism that more highs can arrive in the near future to sweep away past memories of dismal disappointment at the club..
