No crisis here at County, says Jericevich
Mackay eager to end slump against Annan
Stirling County player/coach Peter Jericevich has dismissed suggestions that his side are suffering from a confidence crisis after the Bridgehaugh men blew a 16-point lead at home to Watsonians to slump to a 31-26 loss and third defeat in a row..
County’s collapse means that they have dropped to sixth place in the BT Premiership and Jericevich has admitted that the pressure is on as they look to return to winning ways at Boroughmuir tomorrow (Saturday) in the final
Stirling Albion return to action tomorrow aiming to kickstart their promotion bid with a tricky trip to play in-form Annan Athletic.
Dave Mackay’s men are third in the table, two points behind Peterhead and five adrift of leaders Montrose, who have played a game more.
Albion had no fixture last weekend following the postponement of the home game with Cowdenbeath due to a frozen pitch but the artificial surface at Galabank should ensure tomorrow’s meeting with Peter Murphy’s team goes ahead despite the forecast of even more cold weather.
Stirling travel south on the back of 1-0 defeats to both Berwick Rangers and Peterhead, while Annan have won their last two matches against Elgin and Stenhousemuir to give their top-four hopes a massive boost.
The Binos lost twice at Galabank last season, most recently 4-1 in January, and this will be a big test of their credentials game of the 2017.
With the January post-festive card providing a daunting schedule of fixtures with Ayr, Melrose and Currie, Jericevich knows that County must find a way back to winning ways at Meggetland.
He said: “All our focus must be on winning at Boroughmuir. Three losses on the bounce is unacceptable and, although we have been hit with injury and unavailability, we can’t use these as excuses.
“There is no way we want to be going into the break on the back of another loss and we will be working at what feels like a pivotal point in the campaign and with games at home to Montrose and away to Elgin still to come in 2017.
Midfielder Andy Black is out for two games but skipper Willie Robertson could return and youngster George Stanger is another option after an impressive debut against Clyde last month.
Mackay said: “Willie has been out for five of six weeks but he trained last Thursday night and would have been part of the squad for the Cowdenbeath game.
“He’s been doing a lot of running and fitness work and he’s a naturally fit guy anyway — he’ll get a full week’s training ahead of the Annan game.
“Steven Noble is still out but he’s maybe a little bit ahead of schedule. It wasn’t as bad as feared so he should be able to start a bit of running this week and maybe training the following week.”
Mackay knows it’s a crucial phase in the season but is confident of an improved performance against Annan this weekend despite a disappointing December so far.
He said: “First and foremost, we have to make sure we all stick together — we are very hard at training to make sure we can get over the line on Saturday.
“This is a really crucial match because of the three defeats but we will go to Boroughmuir viewing it as an opportunity. The belief is still very much there that we will turn things around.”
There were plenty of positives to take from the Watsonians reverse - four tries from Reyner Kennedy, Shaun MacDonald, Ewan Macgarvie and Callum Hunter-Hil earned a bonus point.
The coach added: “There was a huge improvement in our set-piece at both the scrum and the line-out not pointing fingers at any individuals. We know as a group we have not been good enough the last few weeks and it’s up to us to put it right. We’ll work hard on the training pitch to try to get the players back in the form we were in.
“I don’t think they weren’t trying or anything like that but we made things far too easy for Peterhead in our last game and didn’t put up anywhere near the fight that we have done and which got us into a great position earlier in the season.
“We obviously had some harsh words after the game and I’m sure we’ll respond with a much better performance against Annan.
“The league is becoming so compact. Maybe a month or so ago you were looking at Stenhousemuir as the team that were going to have a run but I think they find themselves down in about sixth position after some poorer results similar to ourselves.
“It’s that close that if we continue our poor run we could slip down a few places or go the other way with a couple of wins.”
The referee for tomorrow’s game is Duncan Williams and kick-off is the usual 3pm. and I thought our first-half display was outstanding.
“That said we were undone by errors and that is what we need to eliminate at Boroughmuir. But performance wise we got a lot right it was just a pity we didn’t close the game out from the strong winning position we built for ourselves.
“We lost the match between the 50th and 70th minute and it is frustrating that spell ruined things.”
After being in cold storage since a 43-0 win at Cumbernauld on November 4, Strathendrick are scheduled to be back in action tomorrow at Uddingston in a BT West League Two fixture.