Clinical touch will be key to second half of season
Boss reflects on the ups and downs of year so far
YOKER Athletic boss Gordon Robertson is calling for consistency from his side as they aim for a positive second half to the season.
The Whe Ho currently occupy ninth place in a tightly packed West of Scotland Football League, with a run of a couple of positive results having the potential to see teams nudge towards the promotion spots while back-to-back defeats could see a number of sides end up flirting with the relegation spaces.
The Holm Park side’s inconsistencies are highlighted by a run of a victory, a draw and a defeat in their past three matches as Robbo looks to turn those tight margins in his side’s favour.
His side went on a positive run towards the end of the 2022/23 campaign that secured a sixthplace finish, and with a cup tie with reigning Premier Division champions Beith on the horizon in the new year, he insists there is plenty to play for.
Speaking to the Post, he said: “There’s a real challenge for us to get up into the upper reaches of the league and make a bit of a mark.
“We haven’t done that in the first half of the season and deserve to be sitting where we are sitting.
“I think we’ve got a better squad than we did last season but I also think the standard of the league has significantly improved.
“We took points off all of the top three last season whereas this season we haven’t taken points off any of them.
“There’s no concern about effort or commitment, we have all of that, and just need to fix one or two things and kick on in the second half of the season.
“We have to do what we done last season which is have a really strong second half to the season.
“We’re still in one of the cups after Christmas which is always a target and we have plenty of head to heads with the teams around about us coming up.
“It’s in our hands to have a good second half to the season and we’ll be going all out to try and do that.”
Robbo’s side have netted the third least amount of goals in the division this season – only two sides in the league have scored fewer goals, both of which are in the bottom three – however, they can boast the third best defensive record.
Yoker have only lost two league games by more than one goal this season, and the Whe Ho boss hopes that finding a clinical touch in front of goal can see his troops turn those narrow losses into points.
He explained: “We need to score more goals but that’s easy to say.
“It’s not hard to identify just by looking at the numbers what you need to do but the trick is getting the right personnel and we don’t have the budget to go and buy a player so it makes it difficult to strengthen the group in that way.
“We have to try and use the players we have got, who are good players, to keep creating more chances and taking those chances.
“Sometimes it’s nice to grab a wee ugly point or scrape a win you don’t deserve so I wouldn’t mind seeing one or two of those.”
Yoker return to action for the final time in 2023 when they take on league leaders Ardrossan Winton Rovers at Winton Park. Kick-off on Saturday is at 1.30pm.