Brora Rangers manager Steven Mackay says a brave approach to tomorrow’s second leg against Kelty Hearts can rescue his side’s pyramid play-off hopes.
The Cattachs trail Kelty 2-0 from the first leg, after the Lowland League champions deservedly triumphed at Dudgeon Park on Tuesday.
Mackay was far from pleased with his side’s first leg showing, describing their performance as unacceptable.
The result puts Kelty firmly in the driving seat to set up a play-off final against Brechin City, with a place in League Two next season at stake.
With Brora making the trip to New Central Park for tomorrow’s return leg however, Mackay knows all is not lost if his side apply themselves better in Fife.
Mackay said: “It’s half-time in the tie, we have got 90 minutes to try and put it right. That’s something we now need to focus on.
“The main thing on Saturday is we really need to go there and be positive. We need to just forget about Tuesday’s performance and not dwell on it.
“We just have to focus on Saturday. We have to go there and be a lot more positive, and a lot braver on the ball.
“That is sometimes the most difficult thing to do in football, being brave on the ball if it’s not going your way.
“We need to go there and put on a much better performance and ultimately need to try and get an early goal.
“If we do that, the tie is wide open.”
Kelty ran out comfortable winners despite seeing two early penalties from Kallum Higginbotham and Nathan Austin being saved by Joe Malin.
Barry Ferguson’s men did go on to take the lead through Dylan Easton’s strike midway through the first half, before Higginbotham converted his side’s third penalty of the night early in the second half.
Despite Kelty being deserving winners, Mackay feels his side’s poor display was the biggest contributing factor to the result.
Mackay added: “There was nothing about Kelty’s game that really surprised us. I just think the only surprise was how ineffective we were throughout the game.
“I don’t think we really created any chances of note, which is really unlike us.
“Although credit must go to Kelty for how they managed the game and handled our players, we just did not reciprocate that and do that with them.
“We gave them too much time on the ball. For the first goal we stood off Dylan Easton, albeit it’s a great strike, but we have invited the shot.
“To give away two penalties and save them, we felt that should have given us a boost of confidence, but it just didn’t come which was the most frustrating thing.”
Mackay hopes an honest assessment from his players ahead of tomorrow’s match can bring about a response, and he added: “I have asked the players to do a bit of self-reflection, to really look at themselves in the mirror and ask if they did enough on Tuesday.
“I think 99% of them will say no, they didn’t do enough.”