Shotts boss John McKeown was left stunned after their best display of the season ended in their heaviest defeat of the campaign at home to St Cadoc’s.
The Hannah Park side missed a host of chances in their West of Scotland Premier Division clash and that came back to bite them in the second half, as the visitors netted through Jack Breen, Ronan Hughes and Neil McLaughlin to make it six defeats in eight games for the newly-promoted side.
McKeown insisted the scoreline wasn’t a true reflection of the game and his side were taught a harsh lesson in finishing by their rivals.
He said: “The scoreline absolutely flatters St Cadoc’s. In the first half it was one-way traffic, we absolutely battered them, and I couldn’t believe we went in at half-time at 0-0.
“We missed three gilt-edged chances. Their goalie makes a great save from one of them as well. There is always that fear that when you don’t take your chances in the first half, they would get theirsin the second half and, sure enough, that’s what happened.
“Even after they scored their first goal, we missed another sitter, missing a header from six-yards out. It’s just frustrating. We had a number of bodies missing but it was our best performance all season – and we’ve come out of it with our heaviest defeat of the season, which is just madness.
“It’s just the way it is going for us right now. We had Danny Burns, Chris Meikle and Kieran Campbell out, guys missing because it was September weekend, but we performed excellently.
“At half-time I said ‘listen lads, this is the best we’ve played for a while’. We caused them all sorts of problems.
”I thought the referee was really poor as well. We were denied a stonewall penalty but it is not the referee to blame for the defeat.
“The fact of the matter is we missed chances and St Cadoc’s have the quality that if they get half a chance, they take it.
“That’s what we’ve found all season against the likes of Clydebank and Pollok. We are not giving up a lot of chances, but when these teams do get the odd chance they take it, and we are missing three or four. It is just a harsh lesson in finishing for us and being ruthless.”
McKeown can, at least, take confidence from the first half showing into another tough test this weekend when they visit fellow Premier side Glenafton in round one of the West of Scotland Cup.
On the clash, he added: “It’s another difficult game. I keep seeing for 45 minutes, games where we’ve been brilliant and then we drop off. If we can put it all together, we won’t be far away. Fingers crossed it clicks eventually.”
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