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The team looks to get our cinch Championship campaign back on track this weekend as we take on familiar foes, Raith Rovers.

It will be the fourth meeting of the clubs already this season. A Mitch Megginson double earned us all three points to kick things off in July, but Rovers have taken the spoils twice since, in the SPFL Trust Trophy at Balmoral in September, and with a convincing league win in Kirkcaldy the following month.

After a turbulent start to 2023, the management and players have been working hard in training this week, and with two strong sessions under their belt, manager Paul Hartley believes his players are in a good position to start righting some wrongs:

“We all worked so hard to get Cove up into the Championship, so there is a real motivation to stay there. We will be giving everything we have to achieve that, to push up the table, to pick up as many points as we can.

“The home form has always been strong in the past, and we need to get back to that, starting with the game against Raith Rovers. I watched them last week in their draw with Dundee, they’ve got some excellent players, boys I know well, some of whom I have worked with in the past, and Ian Murray has done a really good job there.

“It will be tough, but every match is in this division!”

The gaffer admitted he was taken aback by last week’s showing, a performance the like of which he had never previously seen from a Cove Rangers side:

“Often in this game you’ve just got to take it on the chin, and make sure you learn from it.

“Maybe that was the wake-up call you sometimes need, both as a player and a manager.”

“We know the job we have to do between now and the end of the season. The remit is to make sure we stay in the Championship, but there is a lot of work to be done. We need to strengthen the squad, some loan players that did really well have gone back to their parent clubs, and we’ve been hit badly with injuries.

“We have already signed Declan Glass and Brody Paterson, and I can assure you I’m doing everything I can to add more players. The next few weeks are going to be very busy indeed.”

Skipper Mitch Megginson is one of the core of players who have been with Cove Rangers on the journey up through the divisions. They have largely known success throughout their time with the club, and when they have had the occasional knock, the group has always bounced back.

That is exactly what he expects the team to do again in the wake of the horror shows in Inverness and last weekend:

“I can assure you we are all hurting, the manager, players and staff. We have set standards at this club over a number of years, and that wasn’t good enough.”

“The two training sessions this week have been something of a release for us, the preparation has gone well, and there is a real determination within the group that we will turn things around.

“We cannot let those two results derail the campaign. Over the piece, while it has been tough, I think we have done okay, and we’re still in a position where we can secure our place in the Championship and look to improve on where we are.”

Of last week’s starting eleven, five had barely played in months, so the hope is they will have benefitted from getting competitive action under their belts.

Shay Logan and Gerry McDonagh are out injured, Charlie Gilmour has returned to St Johnstone to recover from his ankle operation, and Fraser Fyvie is a doubt after being the victim of a crude challenge against Queen’s Park last Saturday. Brody Paterson, signed on loan this week from Hartlepool United, is in line for his Cove debut.

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