KILBY ARE LEFT OUT IN THE COLTS
Lauchlan’s men end year with first home defeat
East Kilbride ended the most memorable year in their history on a low note as they lost at home for the first time this season.
And while their narrow defeat to Cumbernauld Colts will have given encouragement to title rivals East Stirling – now just seven points adrift of the league leaders – Kilby boss Martin Lauchlan insisted everyone would love to be in his side’s position.
In a year which witnessed the club face Celtic in the Scottish Cup and earn recognition from Dutch giants Ajax for breaking their world record for consecutive wins, the curtain fell on 2016 with a bit of a whimper from a side who have scored 83 goals in 27 games so far.
Despite losing last Friday night to a late Jamie Broadfoot strike from some 45-yards, Kilby will brush off the Colts defeat in the knowledge they remain in pole position for the title.
Lauchlan, whose side also lost 1-0 to Spartans last month, told the News: “It was always going to happen that we would lose games this season.
“At no point did I believe we could go through every game unbeaten, so to have 16 wins from 18 games is pretty good going.
“From now until the end of the season every game is going to be tough. The closer you get to achieving something, the harder it gets.
“I still think all the teams in the league will drop points from now until the end of the season and I’m not going to sit here and say we will win every game.
“But there is a lot of confidence in this team and we won’t sit and dwell on one result.”
East Kilbride passed up a number of chances with Jack Smith, Adam Strachan and Declan Hughes squandering good opportunities.
The hosts also felt aggrieved not to have penalties awarded for apparent fouls on Smith and Joao Victoria.
Going into the final few minutes, Kilby were undone when Broadfoot let rip from distance to find a way past Matt McGinley and stun K-Park.
Lauchlan added: “I’m disappointed in terms of the result, but I’m not too disappointed by our performance because we dominated the game.
“We limited Colts to one shot on target in the whole game and they’ve scored from it.
“To be fair we defended quite well but we were hit by a sucker punch. It’s a strike out of nothing from 45-yards.
“We had a few big chances and two stonewall penalties denied, but the longer you go on without scoring the more likely you are to lose something.
“We needed to be clinical, but the boys have squandered opportunities that on another day they would take.
“The goal gave Colts renewed energy because I felt they were flagging just before they scored. After that they did well to dig in, get everyone behind the ball and frustrate us.
“But, hopefully, this defeat is the wee kick up the backside the players need to return to winning ways in the next game. We need to be better in front of goal.”
EK start 2017 at home to Gretna on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) and Lauchlan is hard at work in a bid to strengthen his squad for the remainder of the season.
The club are in talks with three players this week and Lauchlan said: “Gretna is a tough game for us and they have been on a good run since their new manager (Matt Henney) came in.
“I’m hopeful of getting some new faces in before that game to bring some renewed energy to the squad and a bit more competition for places.”
In other news Jack Smith’s loan spell from Stenhousemuir ends after Saturday’s clash and no decision has been reached on whether or not Smith will return to his parent club.