BY IAIN COLLIN – @CCP_sport
Jack Ross insists Alloa Athletic must set the target of winning every single game remaining in the season – or just give up on their slender hopes of beating the drop.
The Wasps are now a massive 11 points adrift at the foot of the Championship following Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Falkirk and the 2-0 victory that second-bottom Livingston secured over third-bottom Dumbarton.
The Sons are next up tonight for Alloa, who will hope to make the most of their game in hand on Livingston.
However, Ross acknowledges they will have to improve dramatically in front of goal if they are to pull off a miracle escape with just nine matches remaining.
He said: “Ideally, we would want to win every game between now and the end of the season.
“There’s nothing wrong with setting that as your target – because if you don’t it would be pointless turning up.
“We go into Tuesday’s match looking to try and win the game.
“The players, by and large, in the time I’ve been here, have been great, in terms of their attitude and their commitment.
Hope
“Do they lack, sometimes, that wee bit of belief in the final third? Yes, and that’s maybe indicative of how the season’s gone for them.
“There’s almost a hope that they’ll score, rather than an expectancy they’ll do so.
“We keep trying to work on that and if we pick up positive results then they’ll at least get some reward for those efforts.”
Alloa shocked runaway league leaders Rangers by drawing 1-1 with them last month, when they also drew with Morton, but they have only won once since Ross took over December.
And the 39-year-old is fully aware that draws are of no use to his part-timers as they bid to bridge the growing gap to second-bottom.
He added: “We just need to win matches but we haven’t won enough of them to date. Although I think we’re more competitive, we still haven’t won enough games.
“Over the course of the remaining games, the target is just to win matches.
“We could set a points target or look at somebody to catch – and they could win every game, which makes it redundant.
“We’ve just got to win games and see what happens after that.”
