Binos boss to wheel and deal again
Mannerofdefeat thesameoldstorysaysMackay
Frustrated Binos boss Dave Mackay is ready to return to the transfer market in the wake of Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Montrose.
That result leaves Stirling secondbottom of the table going into this weekend’s home game with Berwick Rangers and the former St Johnstone skipper questioned the mentality of his squad after they threw away the lead to lose for the third time in the space of a week.
Blair Henderson scored early on – just as he had done against Annan and Clyde – but the outcome was the same as Albion followed the 4-1 reverse at Galabank and 3-2 Scottish Cup exit at Broadwood with another defeat that leaves them in a battle for SPFL survival.
Mackay, who will be without midfield duo Willie Robertson (injured) and Calvin Colquhoun (suspended) this weekend ,brought in seven players in January but admits he might be forced to further reinforce his squad for the run-in.
He said: “That has to be an option. If I don’t do that we are in grave danger of going down. Something has to be done.
“There will be free agents available and I will be making phone calls because we can’t do the same stuff over and over again – we can’t expect different outcomes when it has been happening so often.
“We’ve only got one loan left to use. There are certain areas we would like to strengthen but we will be on the look-out. Today we only had 18 fit players and four of them sitting on the bench were defenders so we are struggling for numbers.
“We have four key players out injured at the moment in Ross Kavanagh, Ross McGeachie, Callumn Morrison and Josh Jeffries and we’re in a difficult situation.
“It seems to be one bad thing after another but we will have to try to remain as positive as we can and look to bounce back next week.
“It’s an option to bring (assistant manager) Ross Forsyth back and hopefully Ross McGeachie is available but there will be changes for next week – there has to be.”
Henderson’s 11th goal of the season looked like it might be enough to get the better of a Montrose side who were not at their best but it all went wrong in the last 17 minutes.
Mackay said: “Without being brilliant we were comfortable enough but as usual we lose one goal and it’s incredible how weak we look when we concede a goal.
“It’s scary and it’s unacceptable. It’s Groundhog Day – we say the same thing every single week.
“We know it’s a serious situation and we’ve known that for a while but we keep going a goal ahead in games and look fine then we just crumble.
“It’s a weak mentality. You are pulling your hair out trying to work out what the real problems are – we look fine until we concede the first goal and it could be any number after that.
“When you lose the first goal you can sense it all about you and no wonder – you get that feeling
of ‘here we go again’. Sure enough, even before they got the penalty they missed a couple of chances and you could see us panicking and slicing clearances and that type of thing.”
Berwick beat Annan 4-1 at Shielfield on Saturday and are two points ahead of an Albion team they defeated 3-2 in a midweek match two months ago so the importance of the match is obvious.
Mackay said: “Every game’s a big game for us – we say it every week and there’s no reaction. You wonder what more you can say to them. You work on things, you tell them things. You think it is going to plan for 70 minutes there then the same old Stirling Albion come out – weak, absolutely weak – and just roll over.
“During the week we showed them all the goals we have been conceding and most of them in the last five games have been laughable.
“We have 14 huge games coming up for this club – it’s that precarious a situation and we need to start stepping up to the plate. That includes all of us – myself, my staff and the players.
“We have to stick together and get through this.
“We can definitely get out of it but we won’t if we keep making these individual and team errors.
“It’s often a culmination of five or six people making little mistakes which then builds up into one big mistake and you saw that with the second goal.”