CoveRangers1922

I struggle to remember our purple patch, maybe because it was so long ago and/or maybe because it was gradual collection of points rather than a streak. Accies definitely had a stellar 6 games around New Year. If their cup win propels them back to that form Cove are completely screwed. I struggle to see that happen and fair play if they pick up any points against Dundee and Rovers away before we play them on 8th April. If you lads turn over Ayr on Friday night that will be the nail in the coffin for 8th for us I feel. 5 points and a superior goal difference will be hard to overturn. That would be 4 draws and 2 wins in the last 6 which would be a nice run and at the right time. Litchies have a tough run of their own until we come to Gayfield, Ayr (H), Dundee (H), Caley (A), Rovers (A). For our sake I hope we are still in running come our short journey down to play you. 35 points is all I think it will take to secure 8th. I'd be quite shocked if it's anymore than that.

Our saving grace is we probably can't play any worse than what we have at times in the last 10 or so games. That alone isn't worth much. Whether we can elevate our performances to get points remains to be seen. Need a run of points quick. We've had spells of looking like a team in some games and against Queen's Park we were very competitive and looked worthy of being here. It's a big ask and if we don't get a win soon it will be over before long. I remember watching Accies against Arbroath a few Friday nights back and taking nothing away from the Litchies who looked the far better side, Accies weren't at their best and my thoughts they were about the same level us but a cup win might breed the confidence they need. They have a couple of tough games away to Dundee and Rovers before playing us. Should be an interesting conclusion to the season given we've essentially be written off. * Last few home games all tickets are at a reduced price. Think it's circa £14 rather than £18 or something close to that.

We've been horrific since the turn of the year and going by that form have rightly have entered the bottom two for the first time since mid-September. 1 win in 13 games in all competitions, confidence is on the floor. Defence made of glass doesn't help. We badly need 3 points as do Thistle if they want to put pressure on the teams directly above and obviously in order to secure a playoff spot. Latter is a minimum requirement with the budget offered at the start of the year to McCall. Still think a fully firing Thistle could get far in the playoffs. The narrow defeat at Caley last week ended Doolan's unbeaten run of 6 prior. Although Cove's record against Thistle in the league of late hasn't yielded any losses, this is surely their best chance to break that run. Realistically we need at least 9 points in the last 6 games to have a chance for 8th. Ideally we'd get two of those wins against Hamilton and Arbroath and try to get points in our three remaining home games (Thistle, Caley and Morton). Tough ask as we are performing and looking like a L1 side but a slim possibility remains. Blair Yule is in contention to return to the squad after months out. A half fit Blair trounces the likes of Vigurs and Virtanen. Had a good hour chat with Harry Milne about a month back, the weekend before you thumped Dundee at Dens and Harry scored actually. Chatting about Cove, Thistle, the Championship and Scottish Football in general. He's loving his time at Thistle, being full time and being down in Glasgow area. What a player. Never once said we for Cove. Clearly converted although still has many friends on and off the park at Cove and keeps a look out for our scores.

Naismith is ROTTEN. Tries to clear his lines and hits it right against the Ayr player. Dipo takes it well although unchallenged. We just can't defend, look so vulnerable. 2-0 game over.

Started alright and first attack caught short at the back and punished. Some save from Albinson to stop it being levelled

Logan returns to the starting lineup in what will be a 5-3-2 in my opinion. We'll need to ensure we are as watertight as we can be. Vigurs, who can't move but does have experience and composure on the ball is favoured instead of Virtanen which is I'm alright with.

As expected Bangala ineligible. Travesty for all I'm sure. https://coverangersfc.com/2023/03/23/manager-wants-positive-response/ Fox returns in goal for Cove but sadly this game comes too soon for Blair Yule who might return from 2 months on the sidelines for the game against Thistle next week. Hopefully Hartley stops messing about and plays Logan at RB over Naismith who is beyond useless there. Longstaff and MOH to played wide and let's try and test Reading and Hewitt/McAllister. After a thumping by Rovers last week when we looked very competitive against Queen's Park the week before, who knows what Cove will turn up. I expect a reaction and some pride shown at a minimum. Tough ask to get anything and there won't be many backing us to get a result.

Was a great challenge from Longridge who's done well since joining on loan from Livi. As you say it wasn't pivotal, far from it so poor refereeing but luckily didn't impact anything. We looked fairly solid at the back last week and even the Dundee game the week before so very disappointing to be carved open. After Gourlay's error early on our brittle confidence showed and Rovers exploited it

Exactly once the momentum is lost is hard to regain it and given we've had essentially one rebuild in winter and if we do go down another will be happening in the summer it's no guarantee that we finding the winning formula to gun for the title or easily secure a playoff spot. Full time QoS proving it's not easy although I do think Bartley is a strong appointment and next season they will be pushing harder. Cycles, setbacks and relegation happen to all clubs, we haven't experienced it yet in the SPFL yet but will one day inevitably and it's being able to bounce back. Could very well meet in the playoffs. We have work to do to ensure we don't fall straight through the trap door first. Diamonds will be a strong test for anyone in the playoffs. Due a promotion for sure! I agree with your points on points above on FT. We would definitely test the waters with hybrid before trying to stabilise as well as grow the structures off the field before going near to full time imo.

With the recent success for Arbroath, the money made and banked I thought there might have been the chance of taking a risk and going hybrid last summer. Financially a strong starting position to make a fist of it.

From what I've seen this season I completely agree. There's little longevity for us and many other part time clubs at this level. Arbroath have done immensely well to be on their 4th successive season here. You might get a golden crop of players for a few years all playing at or near their peak but it's incredibly difficult to constantly find and have the best PT players. You also need to be able to compliment that group with some quality loans as well and that is unstable and market dependant. When Falkirk and Dunfermline return to the league it'll be even harder. Cove threatened the thought of FT (hybrid to start with) last summer. Hindsight I would have loved to see how it would have planned out for us. IF we stay up it will happen and will need to or else it will be delaying the inevitable. We have people associated with the club who can and would invest in our bid for FT but there would need to be a long term plan in place to grow revenue streams and develop off field aspects. Its been a rapid rise so the latter is naturally going to need time to catchup

This Cove side are a completely different beast to last season, especially since Christmas / loan window opened and since McIntyre departed. I remember saying last season that Airdrie would have been in a better position to go up than us due to being hybrid already, established and fit for purpose stadium and very well positioned geographically to attract players in and around the populous central belt. I stick to that statement. Also, if the Diamonds went up Murray and Easton might have stayed keeping a strong spine. We lost our manager and best player in Harry Milne as soon as L1 campaign finished. We look fragile as hell. When we play well there is a bad luck story and when we play poorly we get destroyed by teams taking every chance they get. I feel for Hartley to be honest. It's he who is responsible for recruitment, I understand that, but the winter window is hard to operate in and the quality of loans/signings were limited. All the best ones went to full time clubs (as expected). Rumours are we tried our hardest to get FT players to step down to PT but weren't willing. I do agree with you though, I worry about him getting a big wedge of cash if we go FT (hybrid) in the championship. If we spend big we'll want to see instant results. Only hybrid if we stay up. Diamonds scoring freely lately, very impressive. Should make the playoffs with a bit to spare.

Without a doubt he would have been gone. McIntyre might have us on a few more points if he stayed but see above. I doubt his recruitment and with our injuries he'd have fared much better. He patched us with 3 great late loan signings

Definitely a thought now amongst the Cove fans. My thought is that McIntyre wouldn't have been able to strengthen us or add that much quality in the winter window as the loans/signings that did happen were limited. We would have lost Johnston back to Motherwell and Gilmour back to St Johnstone due to injury but I definitely feel we would have been able to keep Jack Sanders who transformed our weak centre back area. Fyvie and Yule both are massive misses for us. Mitch and Scully also missed a few games since the turn of the year. So that would have happened and impacted us regardless of manager. One thing for certain is Hartley's recruitment has been atrocious. No getting away from that

Since Hartley's come in it feels every deflection finds the back of the net, every penalty claim against is given, we score own goal at a crucial time and any chance we get hits the woodwork. Clearly we've been soft at the back but at times we look in games. Just not able to do it for the whole 90 minutes hence the dismal run. Our players, especially 90% of the 10 new recruits aren't good enough to compete at this level. We scraped the barrel and got the dregs who could only find PT football. Our hope and the same goes probably for Arbroath and Hamilton is to beat each other and knick the odd point here or there to try and salvage 8th. IF it's us we'll be FT next season, rightly or wrongly, will throw more cash at it and maybe might have more of a chance of being competitive Ruthless is always good especially in the run in. Keep looking up Rovers