Albion Rovers players say sorry to fans

Sep 14 2011 by Colin Paterson, Airdrie & Coatbridge

Albion Rovers midfielder Chris Boyle.

DEVASTATED Chris Boyle has said sorry to the Albion Rovers supporters after his side’s derby-day disaster.

The 29-year-old could barely hide his disappointment as he reflected on a 4-0 humbling, with all of Airdrie’s goals scored in a fraught first-half for the Cliftonhill men.

Rovers had arrived at New Broomfield looking for their first win over the Diamonds in 35 years.

But the Coatbridge outfit’s chances of clinching a landmark success lay in tatters after a diabolical defensive display.

“The first thing we want to do is apologise to the fans that have come along and paid good money to watch us,” Boyle told Advertiser Sport.

“It was a big game for them; a massive game for us. The boys are distraught. It’s 4-0, so we’ve got to hold up our hands and say we have to do better.

“I’m just gutted. I don’t know what happened. We will all need to go home and think about our own performances and then move on from here.

“I think we’ve let the fans down. None of us has given anything less than 100 per cent but that’s the least anyone would expect from a professional footballer. You have to do the basics right.

“We didn’t defend properly and we didn’t take the chances we had. The game died out in the second half.

“How we react is what will be important now and will determine where our season goes from here.”

Rovers found themselves 2-0 down to their local rivals after just 10 minutes and have conceded 20 goals in seven games so far this term.

Boyle admits it has simply not been good enough and believes the team must get back to the miserly approach they’ve displayed in the last two seasons.

He said: “The two goals in the first 10 minutes killed us. Bad errors have cost us and that’s disappointing as we’re generally quite solid defensively.

“We’ve lost six goals in one game and four in this one. We probably had the best defence in the Third Division last season but have only kept one clean sheet so far.”

Despite the disappointment of losing the Monklands derby, Boyle says there was a determined mood in the dressing room at the weekend as they came to terms with the situation and feels the squad will bounce back positively.

The midfielder added: “The manager wasn’t happy at half-time but it wasn’t a case of ‘heads down’. We knew what we’d done wrong and we wanted to give it a go in the second half.

“We’re disappointed but all we can do is bide our time until the next time and hopefully reverse the result.

“We’ve come into the division and people think we’re going to struggle. But our belief is that we will do better than that. We will put everything behind us and stick together.”