Brian Reid watched his Albion Rovers side crash to another heavy defeat on Saturday – but insisted it’s a “remarkable achievement” they have avoided the relegation play-off this season with all the bad luck they’ve had.
Rovers were without seven first team players for Saturday’s trip to Stenhousemuir and went 1-0 down inside 47 seconds before finding themselves four goals behind with just 24 minutes on the clock.
A Charlie Reilly penalty gave them a glimmer of hope just before half-time, but Sean Fagan’s red card for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity sealed their fate in a 4-1 defeat.
That came off the back of last week’s 5-0 hammering at home to Stranraer and leaves Rovers ninth in League Two, although safety was already secured a few weeks ago with bottom side Cowdenbeath destined for the pyramid play-off final next month.
Although furious with his side’s recent showings, Reid reckons Rovers have done well to be where they are in the circumstances this season.
He said: “Before the last two games, we were five games undefeated with four clean sheets in five games, so you can’t go from that to conceding nine goals in two games.
”I’m not happy with it. It’s not acceptable. We had seven players missing and five of them would have been starters. If you take seven players out of any team, they would struggle.
“No team in our league has had as much bad luck as us with injuries this season. We gambled this season by signing a smaller squad with better quality and if you take five, six or seven players out every week it doesn’t help.
“To actually get to where we are this season with a few games to go, is actually a remarkable achievement with the bad luck we’ve had.
“We’ve had 12 penalties against us this season as well.
“If someone said to me at the start of the season you’d have five or six players sitting in the stand every week and 12 penalties against you, but you’ll be comfortably safe with five games to go, I’d have taken that.
“When we look at it like that, we can take some positives from the situation but that doesn’t take away from the last two games where we’ve been poor.”
Rovers now host Stirling Albion in their final home match of the season on Saturday and Reid should be able to welcome some players back.
He said: “I’m hoping Lewis Wilson, Callum Wilson and David Wilson will be fit, along with James McGowan and Max Wright. Declan Byrne is unlikely though and Fagey will be missing through suspension.
“We’ll just need to adjust, as we’ve had to in most games this season.”
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