Late season collapse must be consigned to history, says Reilly

Thomas Reilly says Elgin City have to get over their collapse last season and show they have the mentality to be challengers in the new League 2 campaign.

The Moray men were in great shape to reach the play-offs when they fell apart after main striker Shane Sutherland was struck down with a knee injury in March.

They had relied heavily on Sutherland’s goal power and his problem rules him out until the turn of the year, but former St Mirren midfielder Reilly, pictured, says they must deal with it.

He said: “It was so disappointing the way the season ended and it was our own fault. We went 11 or 12 games without winning.

“Although Shane got injured we should have made it into the play-offs. We only have ourselves to blame. “When we heard that final whistle on the last day and we hadn’t made it into the play-offs it was awful and the whole summer it stuck in our throats. We were there for so long and it was ours to lose and that’s what we did.

“Taking Shane’s goals out of the team obviously had an effect, but we should have done better.

“We will be without Shane until the turn of the year, so we have to find goals from other areas of the team.

“We have had a couple of bad cup results, ones we should be embarrassed about, so we need to pick things up.”

Elgin lost all four of their Betfred Cup group games, but Reilly feels it will be one of the most open League 2 cam- paigns even if Peterhead are favourites.

He said: “I think the league is really open. Peterhead are probably the favourites but Clyde were favourites last year and look what happened.

“It’s a very tight league. A couple of results can change your season either way.

“We certainly need to lift things from what we have shown in the Betfred Cup because if we don’t we will be well behind Peterhead.”