A season of ‘harsh lessons’ for Cove

Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley is determined to heed the harsh lessons which have been learned after his side came up short in their push for the play-offs.

The League One side have nothing but pride at stake in their final game of the campaign against Edinburgh City today after suffering a 2-0 defeat at Queen of the South last weekend.

Hartley is frustrated his side did not take their playoff challenge to the final day but insists lessons will be learned.

The Cove boss said: “It has been hugely frustrating, that’s for sure. But we have to look at everything and figure out what we need to do, how we can get better and improve next season.

“That will be the task and we will need to do it quickly as the summer does not last long before we will be back at it.

“It’s not the way we wanted the season end. Last weekend was hugely disappointing. We wanted to take it into the last game but it wasn’t to be.

“It probably summed up the season we’ve had in terms of consistency levels. They haven’t been quite there and a horrendous injury list hasn’t helped.

“You couldn’t make it up with our goalkeeper Nick Suman suffering a concussion in the warm-up last week. We didn’t have a lot of players on the bench as it was and had to put Kyle Connell on even when he was ill.”

Having lost assistant Gordon Young earlier in

the campaign Hartley will bid farewell to fitness coach Tam Ritchie following today’s game.

As a result the Cove manager will need to make changes on and off-field.

He said: “The travelling has been an issue for Gordon and Tam for five years. Losing Tam, somebody I’ve known for more than 20 years, is a sore one and he won’t be easy to replace.

“But that’s the task. We’ll look at our playing staff and our backroom team.

“You need to evolve all the time, that’s football.

There are peaks and troughs – it’s how you react.

“It’s the case that players come and go but it won’t be to the extent we did last year. It was a big ask to try to settle everyone in during a short time last summer and not ideal. It had to be done, though, as we needed to make changes.

“But we won’t be looking at the turnover we had last season.”

Despite the disappointing end to the campaign Hartley is focused on ending the season on a positive note with victory

against already relegated Edinburgh City.

He said: “We want to win but it will be a hard game. They play really good football and the league table doesn’t reflect that.

“We want to finish on a high and we owe it to the supporters and the chairman to finish it off at home on a positive now.

“Then we need to work out how to be better and more consistent.”

Suman will miss the game due to concussion protocol while leading scorer Rumarn Burrell faces a late fitness test

DISAPPOINTING: Manager Paul Hartley disappointed not to keep play-off hopes alive.