Luis Longstaff feels Cove Rangers are underperforming at both ends of the park at the moment.
Cove struggled to create too many clear opportunities in the 2-0 defeat to Dundee on Saturday, with the home side duly punished at the back by the Dark Blues.
The Aberdeen outfit have scored just three times in their last seven games. In that same run, they have conceded 16 goals.
It is a combination which Cove could do with reversing, given their position in the table.
“We had spells in the first half and second half (against Dundee) where we played some good stuff going forward,” said Longstaff.
“We just lack a cutting edge when it comes to taking chances. I don’t think we create enough clear-cut chances – we have half-chances and bits and bobs around the box.
“When you’re conceding silly goals and then not creating enough, it’s not really a good recipe. We’ve just got to kick on now for the rest of the season.”
Cove’s current run of form has seen them win once – a 1-0 victory over Partick Thistle – in nine games and manager Paul Hartley has acknowledged they face a battle in the run-in to stay up.
Performance levels as a team will need to improve, ahead of a hat-trick of difficult away fixtures.
Fight to stay up is tight
“When it becomes this much of a reoccurrence, you start to think you’re not just being unlucky all the time,” added Longstaff.
“It’s switching off, silly mistakes and conceding at the wrong time. It’s how it’s been all season.
“We’ve got nine games left and we’ve got to do all we can to try stay in the division.”
With the Championship now into its final quarter, the fight to stay up remains tight.
The two sides below Cove – Arbroath and Hamilton Accies – drew on Friday night and with Cove failing to pick up anything against Dundee, it means just two points separate the bottom three.
“It was probably the best result we could have hoped for on Friday night,” said Longstaff.
“It’s really tight. We’ve got to play both of them and they’ve got to play each other, so you never know how it’s going to pan out.
“We’ve got to focus on ourselves and hopefully do enough to stay in the division.”
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