Cove Rangers boss Paul Hartley says all five of their remaining Championship games are must-win in their bid to survive relegation.
The Balmoral Stadium side have won just once in 14 games and dropped to the bottom of the table for the first time following Hamilton Accies’ win over Raith Rovers on Tuesday.
New Douglas Park is Cove‘s destination on Saturday, and Hartley says a basement-battle win over Hamilton is the only outcome his side can be happy with.
The Aberdeen side are two points adrift of ninth-placed Accies, who have a game in hand, and five behind Arbroath, who have also played one game fewer than Cove.
Hartley said: “The next five games we need to win. There is no room for error whatsoever now.
“The league table doesn’t lie, the fact is we’re bottom of the league and we’ve got a game we have to win on Saturday. It’s as simple as that.
“Our season needs to start on Saturday. We’re on a really bad run of results but this is about the next game, and this is going to be such an important game.”
Hartley still ‘firmly believes’ Cove can stay up despite worrisome results
The Cove boss admits the players are hurting due to their poor run of form, but has urged them to battle for the club’s survival against Hamilton.
Hartley said: “The players are disappointed. They know they’re better than what they’re showing at this moment in time,
“I’m disappointed with the run that we’re on but I still firmly believe we can stay up.
“I’ve seen seasons change within three or four games, but this Saturday now becomes vital to win – and the players know that, I don’t need to spell that out to them.
“If they look at the league table, they know where we’re at and how serious it is at this stage of the season. Saturday, we need to turn up and stand up and be counted.
“Everybody has to have a real go and fight for the club to try win the game.
“If we win on Saturday, it gives ourselves a chance.
“I’ve said over the last few weeks, can we get to the last game of the season with the chance to stay up?”
Hartley admits Cove have not been at Championship standard throughout the campaign, but believes missing personnel has contributed to their form.
Since January, Cove lost loan players Max Johnston, Jack Sanders, Charlie Gilmour, Evan Towler, Kyle McClelland, while Fraser Fyvie and Blair Yule have missed out due to injury.
Hartley said: “I think everybody has underperformed. I think it’s been a testing season, I’ve come in halfway through, which is always difficult.
“You look at the loan players who were really critical for us in the first half of the season – the lads who had to go back – and then Fyvie and Yule, that’s a good number missing from your starting XI.
“To not have them, we’ve had to really change the squad. Bringing 10 players in January was always going to be really tricky.
“We wanted to hit the ground running, but that’s not happened.
“Have we underperformed? Definitely. Can we turn it around? Absolutely.”
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