Duncan Sinclair has urged his Arthurlie side to get their promotion push back on track this weekend as they prepare to take on bottom of the table Larkhall Thistle at Gasworks Park.
Lie were 2-1 winners against Irvine Victoria in their last outing two weeks ago but their form had stuttered before that with two defeats and a draw.
Currently sitting fourth in the West Region Championship, just two points behind Cumbernauld in the automatic promotion spot, and with four matches remaining, Sinclair is challenging his side to finish the season on a high and give themselves every chance of toppling Cumby.
He said: “It’s been a bit stop start recently so I’m desperate to get going again on Saturday. We had a good training session on Monday to get Easter weekend out of the way and we’ll have another session tonight to put some final things in place before Larkhall. It’s an exciting time of the season so we’re keen to see how it goes.”
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Sinclair continued: “We might need some favours from a few of the other teams if we’re being honest but as long as it’s mathematically possible then we remain hopeful.
“We’ve got Larkhall this weekend who are sitting bottom of the league. You only have to look at our loss to Craigmark Burntonians a couple of weeks ago to see you can’t take anything for granted against teams near the bottom of the table. I’ll make sure the boys don’t take anything for granted as I definitely don’t in this league.”
After an impressive mid-season run of form that saw his side notch seven league wins on the bounce, Sinclair’s men have toiled of late with the gaffer blaming a lack of killer instinct in the final third as their undoing.
He added: “We’ve found it difficult to pick up points recently as teams have been playing quite well against us. We’ve not been as dominant as we should be and we’re not scoring the goals we were scoring earlier in the season. There’s a lot to work on even with just the four games to go.
“We’ve not played to our potential at all recently so it’s important to get that back on track. We need to be a lot more ruthless. We’ve given away cheap goals at the same time so there has been a lack of concentration there which we will hopefully fix.
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“We’ve got Benburb and Cumbernauld to play still but we’ve got Larkhall first. It’s important to get a good victory there and build up some confidence and momentum ahead of a few big matches.”
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