Glens players have given all they can
Willie: We’re running on empty
Glencairn gaffer Willie Harvey reckons his players are running on empty after two defeats brought their great league run to a shuddering halt.
Glens had won five league games in a row, before coming from three goals down to snatch a draw with Kirkintilloch Rob Roy last Wednesday, boosting their hopes of sneaking a playoff place.
But a 7- 2 hammering at Maybole was followed up by a 2- 0 defeat at Cumbernauld to end the run.
With the under-21 squad still competing for trophies, Willie has been unable to call on their young stars to help keep the squad fresh.
And he reckons that’s showed in the past two games: “We are running on empty.
“We’ve only got 14 players and we can’t get players from the 21’s. They have a semi-final on Saturday and they can’t afford to have one of their players pick up an injury. Any player we take from them would be important to them.
“Last night (against Cumbernauld), we had two players on the bench in Brian Welsh and Willie Galloway who were never going to come on. Brian is still recovering from his broken leg and Willie has get scarring on his hamstring.
“Kris Irvine never made it back from work, but everyone is going through that right now.
“I’m not crying over spilt milk, we’ll just need to get on with it.”
Willie reckons the Maybole defeat was the most disappointed he’s ever felt as Glens manager, but was impressed with the way the players responded even if they failed to pick up a point at Cumbernauld.
He said: “On Saturday, we played so badly, although I don’t think the scoreline reflected the game. We had a few chances and Marc Russell had to come in having not played or even trained for numerous weeks as he’s been down south on a training course.
“Hutchy ( goalkeeper JC Hutchison) hurt his ribs on Wednesday, but had to play, and had a really, really bad, off day.
“We went there and the grass was long, it was windy.
“It’s the most disappointed I have ever been since I came here, to lose seven goals to Maybole is not acceptable.
“There’s no way to describe how bad we were.
“I told the boys after that they owed the supporters who had travelled down an apology, to be honest, the players should be giving the fans their money back. Last night, I couldn’t fault the players. We lost two stupid goals, but considering how bad we had been the game before, it would have been easy for them to go through the motions.”
Looking back to last week’s thriller with Kirkintilloch, Willie reckons his men could have gone on to win the game: “I think in the first 30 minutes we suffered a wee bit of stage fright.
“But in the second half we were outstanding and I felt we could have won the game.
“I couldn’t believe how well we played after that first half.”