Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley doesn’t believe his squad’s morale has been affected by recent results.
Cove are yet to win under Hartley in his second spell at the helm, and have conceded 16 goals in his first four games. Their last two matches have ended in 5-0 and 3-0 defeats to Ayr United.
Despite their run of form, the Cove boss believes that his players are remaining positive ahead of Saturday’s clash away to Partick Thistle.
Hartley said: “I don’t get the feeling or the vibe that confidence is low – not from what I see in training, but it is about what you do on a match-day.
“Confidence does take a wee bit of a dent when you lose heavily so it’s just trying to pick that up.
“We know how tough this league is – every team has went through a spell of not winning games.
“We’ve taken a few heavy defeats but it’s just trying to instill in the players that they are good.
“There have been big changes from last season, players have come in and come out and then we’ve obviously come in midway through the season. We’ve had to change things – we were short of numbers and we’ve tried to improve the squad to stay in the division.”
Cove, who are eighth in the Championship, have been left looking over their shoulder with Arbroath sitting just one point behind, while basement side Hamilton Accies have found form and won their last two league games.
Hartley says Cove can’t be surprised by the teams around them picking up results and must focus on their job, which is to put more points on the board.
He said: “We knew this could be the case and you’ve got to expect it, but it’s about what you do. You can only control your own situation and can’t rely on favours from anybody.
“So, we need to pick up more points than we have recently.
“We need to pick up points away from home and try and be better. That’s our job to improve our away from, and hopefully that starts against Partick Thistle.”
Cove not finished bringing in new faces
Cove confirmed midfielder Fraser Fyvie is likely to miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury that requires surgery, so Hartley hopes to bolster his squad with the addition of loan players.
The Aberdeen side confirmed the signing of free agent Gime Toure on Friday evening.
The 28-year-old could make his debut against Partick Thistle this weekend.
Hartley said: “We’ve got until the end of the month for loans and we can pick up free agents, so we can still do business.
“We still have to bring players in, we’re not where we want to be.
“We’re probably two or three players short. If we can get them in and really settle the squad – the last few weeks has been tough with players coming in and out, not having our strongest team, and injuries – then we can really get working.”
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