Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley insists his Championship battlers still believe they can give themselves a fighting chance of survival with three games left.
Saturday’s disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to in-form Inverness leaves Cove two points adrift of Hamilton Accies at the foot of the table.
This weekend, they travel to eighth-placed Arbroath needing a victory to have a chance of avoiding the automatic drop back to League One, which they were champions of last summer.
Dundee away and Morton at home will conclude Cove’s campaign and they could do with a favour from the Caley Thistle, who travel to ninth-placed Hamilton on Tuesday.
An Inverness win combined with Cove winning at Arbroath would lift Cove above Accies and within three points of Dick Campbell’s Gayfield side.
Cove, ravaged with injuries, have only posted one win in 2023 and have lost eight of their last 10 matches overall.
Iain Vigurs’ superb free-kick gave Cove the lead in the second half against Caley Thistle, but a Billy Mckay spot-kick and Cammy Harper strike turned the game for Billy Dodds’ fifth-placed team.
Cove boss Hartley, who returned to replace Jim McIntyre in January, was gutted by the manner of the goals they lost against ICT.
He says it will take a united effort from everyone at the club to deliver wins now they need them the most, with Cove footing the bill for fans for their crunch final away games.
Hartley said: “It is still there for us, but it is getting harder. We have three games left to finish ninth at least.
“We know these next three games will be really tough, but we’ve got to try and pick the players up. I’m bitterly disappointed after Saturday, but we have a big game this Saturday against Arbroath.
“It has been difficult with the amount of injuries we’ve had. We understand the run of form hasn’t been good enough and we’re not getting away from that.
“At this level, for 33 games we’ve not been good enough – that’s the bottom line.
“It’s down to the players and ourselves to try and get a result from somewhere. We have got to keep believing we can get a result from somewhere.
“If we can’t finish eighth, we can at least try to finish ninth to give ourselves a chance in the play-offs.”
Crucial points lost after scoring first
Letting the lead in games slip and result in draws and defeats has, so far, has been a factor in Cove’s struggles this term.
Last week, they led against Hamilton and it ended 1-1. They have also lost to Morton and drawn with Arbroath after netting first, and Hartley said the team have only themselves to blame.
He said: “Four times since we’ve come in, we’ve taken the lead and not managed to hold on – that’s the difference at this level.
“The first goal in this league is always important and we’ve not managed to hold on and that’s through bad play from us.
“The table doesn’t lie. We are where we are because we’ve not been good enough this season at both ends of the pitch.”
Players ‘dropping like flies’ – boss
And the Cove boss thinks injuries to key men at this key time is not helping their cause.
He added: “We’ve lost soft goals and at this moment in time we’ve not been good enough. We all take responsibility for that.
“We should be doing better and we’re on a bad run of form. When we lose a goal, or two goals, the confidence seems to drain. What we’ve found tough is lasting 90 minutes with real intensity.
“More and more players are dropping like flies. We can’t even fill the bench as we’ve got so many players out.
“We’d never use that as an excuse, but it has been difficult to get our best team on the pitch.”
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