Cove Rangers have been bitten by defensive shortages so far this season – but Morgyn Neill does not want to use that as an excuse for shipping goals.
Cove manager Paul Hartley has struggled to pick a settled defence in the first month of the season, with injuries and illness meaning almost constant rotation.
Harry Milne and Shay Logan missed last week’s defeat to Clyde, while Jevan Anderson came off with an injury in the second half.
Ryan Strachan has missed game-time with a calf problem and Scott Ross was absent for the loss to Queen’s Park.
Neill, who saw the start to his Cove career disrupted by a spell in isolation, does not want to use that as a get-out for them conceding eight goals in their first five league games.
He said: “This is why you’ve got a squad of 20. You may need an extra couple as, when Covid hits, there’s nothing you do about it.
“Every team is aware of that and, if you look at most squads, everyone is in the same boat.
“It’s not ideal being a couple of bodies down when boys are not feeling well. I’ve played with a different centre-half most weeks because boys have had injuries or Covid.
“But it’s not just us – every team has these problems. We lost two slack goals last weekend, but apart from that we had 25 shots and they had two. We’ve got to roll our sleeves up and do the dirty stuff before the technical stuff.
“Everyone knew, before even I joined, that Cove are a team that likes to dictate possession and have got really good players. It’s maybe sometimes we need to be ruthless and street-wise, as we have lost some cheap goals.
“I take pride in that side of the game and it’s something I and collectively as a team we can do better.”
Cove face Stenhousemuir this weekend in the SPFL Trust Trophy at the Balmoral Stadium, with the competition offering clubs lower down the SPFL pyramid chance for success.
Neill is just glad to be facing someone other than Aberdeen, after coming up against them in four of the last five seasons in the Scottish Cup while playing for Stranraer, Stenhousemuir and Dumbarton.
He added: “I must be the only one to have that record. Last year was the first time I’d actually played against them at home.
“It’s a chance for everybody to get a run in the competition, but we take it one game at a time and hopefully do the business against Stenny.
“It doesn’t matter what competition it is, we are there to win. It’ll be a chance for them, coming up to us, to prove a point, but we want to do the same.
“We want to prove we should be challenging at the top end of the table and in the cups.”