It’s been X-rated viewing

Renfrew boss Clark demands better from his players

Renfrew boss Colin Clark admits it has been “soul destroying” to witness his side’s poor start to the season.

The New Western Park side currently occupy second bottom of the Premiership, having mustered only one win from their opening eight games.

And to compound their woes they also boast the leakiest defence in the division after conceding a mammoth 26 goals.

With a ‘Frew coaching staff made up of former defenders Clark, Martin Ferry and Jimmy Quigley, Clark concedes the defending has been hard to watch.

He says all they can do is continue to work on the training ground in a bid to turn their fortunes around.

He told Express Sport: “It has been a real roller coaster ride – and it hasn’t been an enjoyable one.

“The most disappointing aspect has that a lot of it has been our own doing. We are continuously shooting ourselves in the foot with our defending. Although there has been a few games where we have been unlucky, we can’t really make any excuses.

“We don’t seem to be getting the breaks in front of goal either but if you can’t defend then you can’t really complain too much.

“We expected to take a few sore ones this season. We aren’t going to kid ourselves on, but to be losing games in the manner we are is soul destroying.

“We have to keep working on the defence. We are all feeling it and that is the most frustrating thing for us.

“But we have just been poor. It’s things that could have been avoided and we can’t blame anyone.

“Out of all the goals you could probably only blame the goalkeeper for one of them so we need to protect him better.”

Renfrew are back on home turf this afternoon when they welcome fellow strugglers Troon to town.

It would be easy to pinpoint this as a must-win game already, although Clark admits that they can’t afford to be picky about where the points come from.

Troon will boast former Hearts, Raith Rovers and Dundee striker Christian Nade in their frontline, with the Frew defence likely to be in store for a tricky afternoon.

Despite his concerns over the backline, Clark reckons it is the perfect opportunity for a number of his players to prove to themselves that they are far better than their recent form suggests.

He added: “Nade is a big boy and he will be putting himself about that’s for sure.

“He can be a real driving force for them so we need to ready.

“But if I’m a defender then it is the sort of challenge that I would be relishing.

“I would see it as a real feather in my cap if I could keep him at bay.

“The boys have got to view it like that and rise to the occasion.

“You could say it is a must win game, but they are all must win at this level.

“They are all important and if we are to do well then we need to start getting into a decent run of form.

“We don’t expect to be up there challenging, realistically we will be in the bottom half of the table.

“However, we don’t want to be in a relegation battle so to avoid that we need to buck up our ideas.”

ARTHURLIE LATEST

Arthurlie manager Duncan “There is literally nobody Sinclair insists he left left from my team there as Larkhall Thistle to join a everyone left – all the bigger club this summer. players and all the coaches

The two teams go so it is not as though there head-to-head this afternoon will be many familiar faces. for the first time since “But it will be good to see Sinclair took the reins at some of the fans and I know Dunterlie Park. their manager quite well.

And although he hasn’t “We aren’t looking in been away long, Sinclair good shape and are actually admits he doesn’t know down to the bare bones if what to expect from his truth be told. former side – as it bears no “We have at least four resemblance to the one that players missing, including he left behind. Liam Mushett and Lee

He said:“I had eight good Roulston so I envision us years at Larkhall but I am at a having a squad of only 12 or 13.”biggerclubnowandmy attention is solely on And Sinclair insists he is Arthurlie. looking for a better performance from his side following a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Kilsyth last weekend.

He added:“I am disappointed that we never came away with anything last week. We hammered them in the second half but it just never came to anything.

“When you lose two goals inside the first eight minutes then you are going to struggle – which we found out to our cost.

“This is still very much a work in progress and I am not prepared to shy away from that. There is still a lot of work to be done here.”