Paul Hegarty has thanked the Montrose fans for standing by his injury-hit and youthful squad.
And the Links Park men could do with every bit of support they can get as they aim to end a four-game losing run against the league Two leaders, Annan, this evening.
“We’re finding it a bit difficult at this moment in time,” Hegarty admitted.
“We’ve got four senior players out through injury – Paul Watson, Andrew Steeves, Terry Masson and Ross McCord – and the younger players have been asked to step up to the plate, which they are doing.
“I think the fans realise the situation and they have been very patient with the boys, which I appreciate, and hopefully that will continue.
“It’s not something that would happen at every club.”
Even though they are facing the league’s top team, and their own circumstances are far from ideal, Hegarty believes Montrose can get a result to stop the slump.
“Annan have got experienced players like Peter Weatherson and they’re in good form.
“But we’ll have our players up for the game by kick-off and we can definitely give them a good game.
“It would give everybody a real boost if we could get a win.”
It wasn’t hard for Hegarty to pinpoint where it went wrong for his team against Stirling Albion on Saturday.
He explained: “The goals were all avoidable. They were individual errors from three different people. We’ve got to look to cut them out.”
As well as the four long-term injuries, Scott Johnson is also a doubt for the match.
Hegarty has put in calls to a number of clubs to try and bring in some reinforcements on loan, but there was nothing to report on that front as yet.