A wounded animal awaits for Stirling Albion this weekend as they make the long trip north to Elgin to try and turn around a poor run of form.
The Binos have lost their last four league matches on the spin in a slump which has them moving from looking at the top end of the League Two table to suddenly looking over their shoulders at an increasing posse gathering behind them.
The bruising 3-0 home defeat to Edinburgh City last time out saw the capital club overtake Stirling into that fourth spot – and clubs including Bonnyrigg, Spartans and Stranraer are well positioned to push the Binos further down.
But the task of righting the ship doesn’t threaten to be any easier as they head to Borough Briggs to take on Allan Hale’s side who are still licking their wounds from conceding a 97th minute winner at East Fife on Saturday.
That result during a fiery contest at Bayview saw the Fifers regain top spot in the league, but the Black and Whites have a formidable home record having remained unbeaten there on league business all season.
Their last home match also saw them edge out League One high-flyers Kelty Hearts 3-2 in the Scottish Cup.
The Moray men also have the bragging rights in the sides’ only meeting so far this campaign, edging out Stirling at Forthbank on the second day of the season courtesy of a first-half Mark Gallagher strike.
One statistic which potentially lays bare the differences between the two sides this season comes in the ‘goals conceded’ column for League Two – with Albion having conceded the most with 24 and Elgin the fewest at 15.
The home side will be missing key defender Jack Murray for the match after he picked up a ban for too many yellow cards in the East Fife match – and gaffer Hale admitted this week he may be forced to call a free agent into his depleted squad.
Meanwhile, Stirling boss Alan Maybury expressed his disappointment with his side’s display against Edinburgh – but believed they still remained on track for the season.
Maybury said: “There’s no drama for me, we started this quarter really well – we’re not a million miles away.
“But it is still new and there will be tough days like this, I know that because I walked in here with eight players, two of which have already moved on.
“If we were Chelsea or Manchester United, maybe we would get that time to put things together but because we’re Stirling Albion, we have to win every week.
“It’s all new here, I’m new and I came in later than all of the managers because of the process which took place here and players moved on during that time and we’ve done a great job to set where we’ve been in fourth before today.”