Albion Rovers end season with defeat as boss eyes summer clear-out

Sandy Clark says there will be a clear-out at Albion Rovers as he strives to bring in experienced players who can challenge for next season’s Lowland League title.

The Cliftonhill gaffer needs to strengthen in every area, and knows he’s up against a lot of obstacles to do that – but will work hard at it over the next few weeks.

Rovers finished ninth in the table after a run of poor results that ended with a 2-1 defeat at Berwick Rangers on Saturday, taking just one point from five games.

“If we had ended up sixth or seventh in the league, I think that would have been fair,” said Clark, “with all things being considered, with budgets, other teams and everything else.

“Ninth, to me, isn’t great.

“I’m trying to plan for next season, which is basically that some players will leave the club.

“If we want to be higher up the league and challenge, the ones that come in have to be better than the ones that leave.

“The hard bit is trying to recruit the right ones. I’ve been trying to look at different people for the past couple of months, and that will continue over the next few weeks.

“Hopefully we’ll be a stronger, more experienced team, come the start of the season.

“We started last season with one signed player and I’ve got eight at the moment that I’ve signed and they’ve all got a year under their belt, so hopefully we can kick on and be more successful next season.”

Clark added: “Saturday has been typical of the season for us. We’ve taken one point from the last five games but we haven’t played badly.

“We make naive mistakes and we’ve lost the knack of sticking the ball in the back of the net, with the chances that we’re making, so the combination of both makes it hard to win games.

“We’ve had spells during the season where