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After a ninety minutes which not only saw an end to the side’s long unbeaten home league record, but also left us just one point off bottom spot, manager Jim McIntyre has admitted there are no excuses, Cove simply weren’t good enough.

Ayr United arrived at Balmoral as one of two sides in the division yet to taste defeat this season, and headed home afterwards top of the table after bossing the game from start to finish.

Jim admits the display was simply unacceptable:

“I didn’t recognise that type of performance, I’ve not seen that from us. Ayr were dominant, and we were lucky to get away with a 2-1 defeat. From the first minute to the last, we were outplayed.

“One of the fundamentals of the game is that you have to put in the hard work. We didn’t do that. They got the better of us all over the pitch.

“The only player who gets any passmarks is Kyle Gourlay. His goal was peppered, and he had to make some really good saves.

“That kind of performance will only take you to one place; bottom of the table.”

Cove weren’t helped by losing three players to injury during the match. Scott Ross had to be replaced after half an hour, Mitch Megginson didn’t reappear after the interval due to a hamstring problem, and Mark Reynolds limped off later with a tight groin.

The manager says, while that did not help, it wasn’t the reason we were beaten:

“Even before the injuries, they were miles better than us. We’re not going looking for excuses.”

The trio will be assessed in the coming days, but whatever happens with them, Jim says everyone is going to have to regroup, and put in the commitment required to halt the current slump:

“We’re in this together. We can’t go feeling sorry for ourselves, it’s up to us to sort things out. We’ll be putting in the hard work in training to do just that.

“I’ve got an honest bunch of players, and they know that wasn’t acceptable. We’ve got to dust ourselves down and get ready for the next game.”

That comes next Saturday with a trip to Ochilview to face Queen’s Park, followed by back-to-back home matches with Hamilton and Dundee.

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