Grehan: Cairn stars must cut out errors

Seven-goal thriller ends in defeat on WOSL debut

Martin Grehan says Gartcairn need to learn from the costly mistakes that led Port Glasgow to run out 4-3 winners in their West of Scotland League Conference B opener.

The experienced striker says when Gartcairn twice brought themselves back into the game they needed a period of control, but naivety crept in that prevented them from scoring more.

Grehan bagged a double on his debut for the Airdrie outfit, adding to an unstoppable strike by Fraser Scott, but Steven Saunders’ red card turned the tide in favour of Port Glasgow.

Port took a 2-0 lead into the interval through goals from Fraser Mclaughlin and Johnny Gallagher, before Gartcairn struck back with Scott’s top corner screamer and Grehan levelled from the spot.

Gallagher grabbed his second of the afternoon to restore Port’s lead only for Grehan to level again with a fine header.

But moments after Saunders saw red for an over- the- ball challenge, Port bagged their winner through sub Macaulay Mcarthur.

And Grehan said: “It’s important to bounce back. We’ve brought in some experienced players and have some good young guys as well, but we need to learn the game a bit better; we’re a bit naive in the way we play at times.

“We got back into the game but we needed to control it for a wee bit, to keep the ball, and there are certain aspects when we don’t have the ball that we get caught out, there’s no game-awareness, so there are things we need to work on in training and take them into a game.

“I’m going to score goals here, I’ve played at a a good level, and if you give me service I’ll score goals, but there were maybe times when I was frustrated.

“I’m trying not to be, but there were times when Jordan Moore did well and if he looks up I’ve got a couple of tapins, but it’s learning with the boys, and I can’t get too over the top.

“I’ve came here because I see it as a good project but we need to learn from our mistakes in that game and take it on board.”

Grehan will now hope they get it right against Lugar Boswell Thistle on Saturday.

He added: “The goals we gave away are not acceptable, they’re soft goals, and the ball over the top killed us all day.

“But we should have scored more because we created plenty of chances and I hit the bar in the first half. We just need to regroup.”

At the double Martin Grehan netted twice for Gartcairn in their defeat to Port