The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Hartley promises a new season reset
Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley admits he will use this summer to reflect and look to be more competitive next season after closing the curtain on a frustrating season with a 3-1 win over Edinburgh City.
The League One side endured an inconsistent campaign and missed out on the play-offs after Montrose sealed fourth spot the previous weekend.
But the Balmoral Stadium boss has vowed to come out stronger for next term.
He said: “It’s been a difficult season but we’ve got to push the reset button and make sure we come back stronger.
“There’s things we can all do better, especially myself. There were certain situations where I could have done better so I’ll go away and think about how we become a better team next year.
“We need to be more competitive and have more energy in the team. We’ve already started work to make sure we’re better next year.
“It’s not been the season we hoped for with changes, injuries and personnel. We’ve been very inconsistent in our work and it’s something we need to improve on.”
When asked how much work on the transfer front could get done this summer, Hartley expects more movement again as he added: “There’s always a bit of work, ask any manager and there’s a turnover of players, especially at our level.
“We had a high turnover of players and it never quite worked and that’s the thing you learn from as a manager. It’s been frustrating for everybody and we expected more.”
Edinburgh opened the scoring after four minutes when Malik Zaid carved an opening for on-loan Aberdeen midfielder Findlay Marshall who guided a right-footed shot beyond Balint Demus into the bottom left corner.
Cove grew into the game despite going behind, with Connor Scully seeing a curling effort tipped over the bar by Edinburgh keeper Ruairidh Adams.
A good bit of interchange led to Cove’s equaliser on 22 minutes as Mitch Megginson squared to Paul McGowan who slotted beyond Adams.
The hosts kicked on from there as Megginson turned from provider to scorer seven minutes before the break as he swerved a low drive past Adams from a Kyle Connell pass.
Cove remained on the front foot and a cross from Josh Kerr found the head of Connell but he couldn’t place his header under the bar with 20 minutes left.
The scoring was complete with three minutes to go as Connell was fouled by Edinburgh’s Liam Parker. The striker got up and converted the penalty into the bottom left corner.
Meanwhile, striker Rumarn Burrell completed a hat-trick at the club’s end of season awards, winning player of the year, players’ player of the year and club player of the year accolades.
Arron Darge was named young player of the year.