BACK the team and give me the flak, is Ross Jack’s message to Elgin City fans frustrated by a run of poor results.
The City manager says supporters have a crucial role to play in helping his injury-hit team get their stuttering play-off challenge back on track.
Defeats at East Stirling on Saturday and Berwick in midweek mean the Borough Briggs club have won just one of their last 11 games, and are coming under friendly fire from their own followers – with Jack reportedly the main target for internet abuse.
“I don’t read message boards or websites or Twitter or Facebook, but apparently there’s some people putting the knives in,” said the Elgin boss. “It goes with the territory.
“They can vent their frustration at me as much as they want and get it right out of their systems, but leave the players out of it and give them all the encouragement they can.
“It’s not been pleasant for me or the fans in recent weeks, but it hurts me as much as anyone. I just want people to know the players are hurting badly as well.
“They do need to get some confidence back and the fans’ input will be absolutely huge. We’ve got a run of home games coming up and it’s times like these that the players need their full backing and support.
“If we can get back to producing some sort of performances that encourages the supporters and get the same backing as we did earlier in the season, it is worth a goal to us at Borough Briggs. So let’s get back to that.
“The last thing we need is any frustration spilling onto the pitch. The fans are entitled to voice it but the players need encouragement to help them put in the kind of performance which will get us three points against Stirling Albion on Saturday.”
Full story including more Elgin City injury news in the Northern Scot print version.
