Rob Roy hit hard by chronic injury crisis

Rob Roy boss Stewart Maxwell could be forgiven for watching his side's games through the cracks in his fingers at the moment.
It's been a difficult start to the seasomn for Rob Roy boss Stewart MaxwellIt's been a difficult start to the seasomn for Rob Roy boss Stewart Maxwell
It's been a difficult start to the seasomn for Rob Roy boss Stewart Maxwell

The Rabs boss says a chronic injury list is making it almost impossible for his reshaped side to develop any early-season momentum.

With resources stretched to the bare minimum the last thing he needed at Cambuslang on Saturday was to pick up any more injuries. It didn’t work out that way.

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Maxwell said: “The goalkeeper [Michael McKinven] got injured in the warm up, our best player on the day Jordan McLean went off with a nasty head gash and then John Sweeney went off on top of the fact that we only had 13 fit players.

“Sam MacKenzie, who was injured - he was carrying a knock but I had to have him on the bench - went on and he had to go off injured as well.

“We’re not getting the run with injuries just now. It’s unbelievable.”

Despite the 4-0 defeat Maxwell felt his side had done well up until they fell behind in the second half.

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He said: “We had competed, there was nothing in it. At half-time I thought we were the better team.

“But the minute we lost the first goal the heads went down and they got a quickfire second.

“A lot of the boys have played a lot of minutes recently because of our injury problems and were maybe a wee bit jaded, a wee bit dejected.”

Rabs next face Clydebank at home on Wednesday.

Maxwell is reluctant to be too critical of his players, given the demands placed on the at the moment.

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But he admitted: “But they need to learn that even 1-0 down you’re still in the game.

“4-0 flattered them but it is what it is. We need to get bodies in and I’m making moves to sign three or four players.

“When you’ve got your captain unavailable, your vice-captain unavailable, your centre-back’s unavailable, your goalkeeper’s unavailable, your player of the year last year’s not kicked a ball for you yet, it’s difficult.

“We’re not a big budget team, we can’t just go and sign payers willy-nilly. You’ve got to market it and try and get the right players in on our budget.

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“I’ve not had my strongest Rob Roy team on the park for five or six months now and that’s what you want to be judged on.

“It’s been hard. A lot of teams are rotating players but we’re having to play boys because we’ve just not got any strength in depth.

“But it’s early and hopefully we can get a few players back and turn it around. It’s just going to take a bit of time to settle down.

People have just got to be patient. The club’s at where at’s financially.

“There’s no point in offer players money that the club doesn’t have, we’ve just got to stick within our guidelines.

“But we’re working hard behind the scenes to try and get players in.”

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