WHETHER WE FINISH 3RD OR 6TH DOES NOT REALLY MATTER, BUT NOTHING ENDS WITH THIS SEASON – OUR GOAL REMAINS THE SAME AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO GROW AND PROGRESS.

After Yesterdays lose coach Aleksandrov spoke for our website.

“With yesterday's loss, our chances for promotion are gone, but the season is not over for us yet.

It has been an exciting campaign in which we fought almost to the very end.

Since the first day of my arrival here, we always fight for something. Every game mattered. Considering where we were one year ago and that now we fight at the other end of the table – makes me proud with how far we’ve progressed in this short period of time. To change the mindset and the culture of a team which was surviving to stay in the league for the past few years, whether its first league or second league, to a team who has the winning culture on a weekly basis, requires time.

We have made a lot of mistakes – on many levels – many reasons can be brought out, but right now is important to shake the pressure off, to make the right analysis and to improve the areas we recognize we need to work on more. We can start blaming each other for not being able to promote or be proud with the progress we’ve made – depends on the point of view. The truth is that on the long run, we were not ready yet to fight for promotion this season and there’s no one else to blame, we just need to look in our own club to improve those areas, but the progress is undeniable.

I am very proud with our team – staff and players. For many players this was their first season in senior professional football and their performances at times were incredible.

We were not mature enough at times – we need to learn and realize some things if we want to be first in the table. Quality-wise, we were one of the best teams in the league – the head-to-head stats against the top 3 teams in the league shows it – we’ve been better, despite the fact that they have better facilities and organization in many areas. But it requires consistency, along with many other factors which needs to be better in order to keep our performances high. We were short of experience and composure on the pitch, facilities and in some other areas, where we will need to stabilize ourselves, because we dropped too many points and there are reasons for that.

No single individual should be held responsible, though. We are all one collective – players and staff and we win and lose together. If one person should be blamed, that should be me as the Head Coach and I admit I have made many mistakes, even if I saw some negative outcomes earlier. On the pitch, there were many games where we shouldn’t have given up our lead and others in which some decisions were not optimal. There were plenty of things in the training process that were neglected too and should have been dealt with better and I hold the main responsibility for that.

Our progress is undeniable – we hold the longest unbeaten run in this season in both First and Second League, beat Aluminij twice, got better head-to-head against Triglav and Gorica and had many strong performances. So our qualities or capabilities are not being questioned – but we need to improve our mentality against teams who has less quality, because that’s where we dropped many points in the first and in the second part of the season. This is why winning mindset and culture needs to grow, but it’s a process that cannot happen immediately. And does not come only on matchdays – it’s a way of living, which requires 24/7 commitment and determination to progress.

In the remaining 3 games we will give possibility to players who played less, to get more playing time and to assess better in which areas we need to improve the squad for next season. Whether we finish 3rd or 6th does not really matter, but nothing ends with this season – our goal remains the same and we will continue to grow and progress.

Our motivation does not end here – we are already in plans for what’s ahead of us and we’re not backing down.“