Jim McIntyre and Cove Rangers learning to deal with adversity during struggle for form

By Jamie Durent

August 27 2022, 6:00 am

Cove Rangers manager Jim McIntyre. Photo by Dave Cowe

Adversity and Cove Rangers are two concepts which have not gone hand-in-hand during the last three years.

But three defeats on the bounce, hardly a barometer for panic, has prompted a bit of soul-searching at the Balmoral Stadium this week.

Cove’s defeat to Ayr United last weekend was seen by those connected to the club as a wake-up call. There had been positive signs in the losses against Morton and Inverness but the visit of the Honest Men left them bereft of any optimism.

Manager Jim McIntyre, through the club website, issued a rallying call this week to try nip this in the bud early. It is easy to forget the league season is just four weeks old.

But for Cove, addressing the shortfall in their normally-high standards has been necessary.

🆕 Boss Jim McIntyre has issued a rallying call, saying everyone at the club has to pull together if we’re to emerge from the recent disappointing run.

Read here 👇

— Cove Rangers FC (@CoveRangersFC) August 24, 2022

“Dealing with adversity, you need to learn that,” said McIntyre. “Boys have been used to winning games and never having this type of run.

“But when you’re involved at Championship and Premiership level, a lot of clubs have runs like this every season. Generally they’re longer, like seven or eight games.

“To be able to deal with that you need to trust in the work you’re doing to come out the other side. That’s the message I’m hammering home to the players, that there will be periods like this.

“The one thing nobody can excuse is when you don’t compete and you don’t win individual battles. I don’t expect everybody to win them but when you win none, that’s not acceptable.

“There’s a marked difference between all three defeats. One we were unlucky not to get anything, two we showed a good reaction against a really good side in Inverness but the home game against Ayr was in the unacceptable category.

“I’ve got an honest group of players who were brilliant at training on Tuesday night. They were the first to hold their hands up and say it’s nowhere good enough. The beauty of football is there’s always another game to show a reaction.”

They will go into this weekend’s game with Queen’s Park – a side they faced four times last season – with major doubts over Mitch Megginson, Mark Reynolds and Scott Ross after all three came off injured seven days ago.

Mitch Megginson is treated by Cove Rangers head physio Donal Gallagher.

Blair Yule and Evan Towler remain sidelined, while the struggle to bring in players continues to rear its head.

McIntyre has so far added five to the promotion-winning squad – Towler, Gerry McDonagh, Cieran Dunne, Luis Longstaff and Charlie Gilmour – but there is a need for more.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, it’s been more challenging than I expected,” said McIntyre. “There’s several cases where players we’ve targeted, from a full-time background, don’t want to go part-time.

“That is players who are without a club currently and who you’re trying to take on loan. It’s frustrating because we’re a brilliantly-run club and do things as professionally as any full-time club.

“But if a player doesn’t want to come, he doesn’t want to come. You’ve just got to move on. Hopefully we can get players who want to come to the club, like we’ve done with St Johnstone and Charlie and Aberdeen with Evan, plus our three boys from down south.

“For them it’s all about game-time and getting their careers going. That’s to be admired because a few players that we’ve chased, they would rather sacrifice that. The players we’ve signed are desperate to play football and these are the players I want to work with.”