St Cuthbert Wanderers’ were given a “bit of a rollicking” after a late collapse against Mid Annandale.
The Kirkcudbright side shipped five goals in the last half an hour as they lost 7-0 in Lockerbie.
Saints had conceded to Benji Wagner in the opening seconds with Luke Hammond scoring early in the second half before the roof really caved in.
Wagner scored twice more to complete his hat-trick, Hammond added a personal second and there was also an own goal and a late effort from Mark Leesing.
Craig Rudd, who is taking the team along with Raymond Gordon and Ally McMillan, said: “If anyone had been at that game for 60 minutes and left, saw the scoreline at full-time they would never have believed it would be 7-0.
“We’ve said to the boys we’re trying to develop them and are working on playing from the back, so try and get a bit of style rather than kick it up the park and hope for the best. We lost the first goal trying to play from the back, which I don’t mind, it’s going to happen.
“For the rest of the first half I thought we were on top but didn’t have a cutting edge.
“We came out in the second half and the same thing happened, we lost a goal trying to play out from the back, and the boys gave up.
“We addressed that at full-time, we gave them a bit of a rollicking – both me and Raymond went through them and we had clear the air talks.
“I don’t mind get beaten by a better footballing team but getting beaten by a lack of effort I’ll not tolerate. We gave them a bit of a rollicking at full-time and we’ll see how they respond to it.”
One of Saints’ problems this season has been collapsing after conceding first – so fans could have been forgiven for thinking it would be a hard afternoon after the early setback.
Rudd added: “It didn’t seem to affect them, they kept playing and creating chances. Even when lost the goal in the second half and were OK for five or 10 minutes.
“Just before the third goal, it seemed like the flick of a switch where the effort level seemed to drop and four of the last five goals were nothing short of embarrassing.
“We had a wee blow out in the changing room after the game so fingers crossed things are sorted and fingers crossed things have hit home.
“We started with a 16 and 17 year old up front and I think our oldest player was our captain at 21.
“We’re a young team and we’re just learning. We’re going to have weeks where we get a win and then have a couple of beatings. Trying to get consistency now is the next thing.
“I think we’ve only six league games and three cups left so if we don’t do something in the cups our season could be finished pretty soon.”
Saints are back home this weekend with Abbey Vale – fresh off the back of defeat to Nithsdale Wanderers – set to visit St Mary’s Park.
Rudd said: “It’ll be tough. They have good experienced players and managers and they’re a good team. If the effort’s not there we’ll walk away with exactly the same scoreline.
“We’re asking them to be competitive and stay in games as long as they can. If we’re going to get beat, get beaten 1-0 or 2-0, don’t have this embarrassing scoreline every week where it looks as if we’ve thrown the towel in.