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Despite their 3-0 defeat to Montego Bay United on Monday night at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex, Racing United head coach Anthony Patrick said his players are still in the fight for the final playoff spot in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL).

Racing dropped valuable points in the race for the league's top six when they were turned back by Montego Bay with goals from Owayne Gordon and Peter-Lee Vassell.

They sit eighth in the table on 48 points, four behind Waterhouse on 52 and Tivoli Gardens on 51.

However, with a game in hand, Patrick believes his players can turn the tables in their remaining four games of the regular season and book their spot in the playoffs.

"The heads are still up, they are still ready to play. We have four games to go. We just have to go out there and dig deep and try to get maximum points," said Patrick.

"As I said, we just have to regroup and come again. They are still upbeat and still want to play and that is important."

Patrick believes his team would have walked away with a better result against Montego Bay on Monday had it not been for the referee's decisions.

Racing had started the game with the ascendancy but their night begin to spiral in the 10th minute when defender Romaine Bowers was shown a red card.

"With the 10 men, we still played well right through the entire first half and the only chance they got was the penalty. We were in charge of the game right through and I think in the second half, we started well again," said Patrick who felt that the game was taken out of their hands after the red card.

He said the referee had not asserted his control of the game which saw his team falling to Montego Bay on the night.

"If the referee had taken control of the game, I think the Montego Bay team should have gone down to nine or ten because there were a lot of fouls and two-footed tackles but that is just a part of the game."

He added, "We just have to brush off ourselves and come again."

gregory.bryce@gleanerjm.com