Cove Rangers chairman Keith Moorhouse has pledged they will learn from their Championship relegation.
The Aberdeen outfit tumbled out the second tier earlier this month after a 2-1 defeat to Morton at the Balmoral Stadium on the last day of the season.
Cove were promoted to the SPFL in 2019 and jumped from League Two to the Championship in the space of three years.
However, this term they found things tougher. Manager Paul Hartley – who led their rise up the leagues after taking charge in 2019 – left last summer for Hartlepool United.
Jim McIntyre was the replacement, but he was dismissed in January after a 6-1 loss to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and despite Hartley’s return, Cove slipped to the bottom of the division.
Players on way out
As they look towards next term Cove have also announced that 13 players have left the club.
Cieran Dunne, Kyle Gourlay, Robbie Leitch, Leighton McIntosh, Scott Ross, Gime Toure and Miko Virtanen are all out of contract and will move on, with Ross already having signed for Peterhead.
Loanees David Bangala, Declan Glass, Jackson Longridge, Michael O’Halloran, Brody Paterson and Tony Weston have returned to their parent clubs.
New deals have been offered to out of contract pair Balint Demus and Luis Longstaff with Scott Fox, Fraser Fyvie, Shay Logan, Mitch Megginson, Jason Naismith, Morgyn Neill, Mark Reynolds, Connor Scully, Iain Vigurs and Blair Yule still under contract.
Reflecting on the campaign Moorhouse released a statement on Cove’s website, which read: “There were many contributing factors as to why the season went so wrong, some more obvious than others.
“It is important that during this period of reflection, we take our time to ensure that we learn the lessons from what happened over the course of the campaign.
“Clearly, the change of manager last summer and everything that came with it, meant we started the season well behind where we had planned to be.
“After a tough first half of the campaign, for a number of reasons, it was decided to make a managerial change, early in the new year.
Several factors led to relegation
“After investing heavily in the squad during the January window, the second half of the season proved even tougher than the first, with a number of our key performers being recalled by their parent clubs, and season-ending injuries taking their toll on several of our other important players.
“As the campaign progressed, it became clearer that being a part-time club playing against full-time opposition on a weekly basis was proving to be a bigger challenge than we had initially anticipated.
“Looking back, there were several factors that culminated in us being relegated.
“We will learn from them, just like we learned from the disappointments we experienced in previous seasons, namely the pyramid play-offs and the Championship play-offs.
Thank you for your support throughout the season.
Through the good times and the bad, you have always been there.
We will be back 💙 pic.twitter.com/dTLIImGp9m
— Cove Rangers FC (@CoveRangersFC) May 6, 2023
“As we now look ahead to next season and beyond we should remind ourselves that, despite this setback, we have still come a long way in a short period of time.
“Many teams never reach the Championship and we are still within our five-year plan.
“It is important that we regroup and go again, with a strategy that will see a stronger Cove Rangers both on and off the park.
“We are currently working on a number of options that will take the club forward on both fronts.”