Nixon hoping for a change of fortune for his Ards side

The north Down outfit have gone a full calendar month without a win in the league and currently sit one point ahead of eleventh placed Carrick Rangers in the table.

They have been unlucky of late losing several games by the odd goal.

On Tuesday night though they were put to the sword by a rampant Coleraine side at The Showgrounds.

Nixon will be hoping the manner of the defeat will not have a big impact on his side ahead of Saturday’s game against Glentoran.

“Fair play to Coleraine that’s why they are top of the league and we’re at the bottom,” he said.

“We had been good over recent weeks, but we gave away goals at the wrong times the other night, and they could have been avoidable, Coleraine didn’t have to work too hard for them.

“There’s plenty for us to work on between now and Saturday.

“We had a bit of a heart-to-heart in the changing room after the game on Tuesday night, we know what we have to do, we will work harder and take that into Saturday’s game.

“Glentoran are a mile ahead of us in terms of points at the minute, most teams are at the moment.

“I’ll assess the squad ahead of the game and see where we are at. But we can’t perform like we did at Coleraine.”

Nixon suffered further blows against the league leaders as both Dave Elebert and Guillaume Keke limped out of the action.

“That summed up our night,” said Nixon.

“We lost Dave Elebert early on to a hamstring injury then Keke had to go off after getting injured not long after coming on.

“I was trying to give him a bit of a breather as we have some big games coming up, but it looks like we are going to be without him for a while now.

“We just have to regroup and deal with the defeat quickly as we have another massive game on Saturday, as I’m sure every manager in the bottom six would tell you.

“We just have to dust ourselves down and move forward.”

Nixon’s opposite number, Gary Haveron, knows just how important it is to get a positive result.

The Glens picked up a vital three points at Warrenpoint last week much to Haveron’s relief.

“It’s a results based business, we needed a win down at Warrenpoint.

“We have played well in a lot of games this season, but have ended up with nothing.

“So we were desperate to get the three points last week.

“I would have loved to have got the performance to go along with it, because it wasn’t good enough at times, but we’ll address that.

“We showed a lot of character though especially after going 2-0 ahead early on in the game before being pegged back.

“It was a great header by Daniel Kelly to secure the points for us.”