The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Cove ‘too passive’ in defeat – Hartley
Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley was frustrated after watching his side miss out on the chance to move into the play-off spots by losing 4-2 at Annan Athletic.
The injury-hit side are a point behind fourth-place Montrose having played one game more than the Gable Endies who drew 0-0 at Alloa.
Cove came back from 2-0 down at Annan to make it 2-2 before going on to lose against Peter Murphy’s men.
Hartley said: “In the first half, although we lost two poor goals in terms of set plays in not picking up, our overall play was quite good.
“We showed good character to come back to 2-2 and had other decent opportunities.
“However, the second half was the complete opposite in terms of how we worked the ball.
“We’ve got to show up in the next few games.
“We can’t just play for 45 minutes. We’ve got to be consistent for the full 90 and that’s not been happening this season.
“We were too passive and didn’t pass it well enough. It was pretty simple.”
Cove thought they were ahead after 12 minutes when Paul McGowan finished Mouhamed Niang’s low cross from close range, only for the linesman to flag for offside.
Annan took the lead when Wullie Gibson’s corner found the head of Tommy Goss who sent it into the roof of the net after keeper Balint Demus
had saved from Benjamin Luissint.
Another corner meant another goal for the home side as Gibson again took care of the set-piece, finding captain Matt Douglas, who finished a right foot shot to double their lead.
Cove pulled one back in timely fashion on 32 minutes as Douglas’s lapse in concentration allowed Kyle Connell to drill his effort past Fleming to reduce the arrears.
It took until the cusp of half time for Hartley’s men to
level as Fraser Fyvie’s corner from the left was flicked on by Connell, finding Josh Kerr with an easy nod in at the back post.
The home side restored the lead again on 67 minutes as Gibson’s pass found Luissint lurking outside the area with plenty of work to do.
He managed to turn from 25 yards out and unleashed an incredible shot that arrowed into the top righthand corner of Cove’s net.
Josh Walker then added a fourth for Annan with 10 minutes to go, picking the
ball up on the inside left, cutting inside and drilling a low shot past the outstretched Demus.
After starting the game with just four subs, Hartley was dealt a further injury blow when captain Fraser Fyvie limped off late in the second half and the outlook wasn’t positive.
The Cove manager added: “Fraser’s injury doesn’t look a good one. It looks like he might have popped his thigh and it’s been the story of the season for us with injuries as well as the inconsistency.”