Bonnyrigg boss tells players to focus on beating the drop

BONNYRIGG ROSE manager Alan Miller has urged his players to start focusing on their football and ensure last year's East Region Super League champions aren't relegated this season.

After bowing out of the Emirates Scottish Junior Cup to Largs Thistle at the weekend, Rose have only the league and a couple of the minor cup competitions on their plate for the rest of the campaign. Having picked up seven points from their eight Super League games to date, Bonnyrigg are lying second bottom and Miller knows they've got a fight on their hands to climb away from the relegation trapdoor.

He's unhappy that some of his players don't appear to have their minds totally on the job at the moment, having been seething that one of them headed off to Paris for a few days recently at an inopportune time.

"I wish people would start focusing on their football because, at this moment in time, we need that," said Miller, whose side are away to South Division Harthill Royal in the first round of the East of Scotland Cup tomorrow.

"We have to focus on the league now. It is not a time to be feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to work harder – simple as that."

Reflecting on his team's 3-1 defeat to Largs, Miller added: "The players have got a harsh lesson – and I hope they learn from it."

One player Miller is hoping can help Bonnyrigg climb up the table in the coming weeks is former Forfar midfielder Kevin McLeish, who has missed most of the season with knee trouble but came on as a second-half substitute last Saturday.