Jags boss angry at ‘Carry On’ defending
Late one-two leaves Paterson scratching his head
EK Thistle ............. 1 Greenock .............. 2
Alan Paterson revealed East Kilbride Thistle’s late collapse was so calamitous he thought it was a wind-up.
And the Thistle boss has now warned his side they must learn to win ugly if they are to achieve anything in Central District Division One this season.
Paterson looked on in horror as his side conceded twice in the final two minutes to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on Saturday.
A stunning free-kick from Scott McKean gave the Jags the lead and just as it seemed like they would sneak a narrow win over Greenock, Steven Rush and Stuart Morton pounced on two errors from the Jags to steal all three points.
Greenock’s first goal in particular had the Jags boss reeling after his players fell over each other trying to clear the ball off the line.
He said: “The first goal they scored was ridiculous.
“I thought Jeremy Beadle (the late TV prankster) was going to come out and tell us it was wind-up.
“The way the players fell over and couldn’t clear, it was like something out of a Carry On film.
“After that I’m thinking ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’. It can’t get any worse.
“But then we give the ball straight to their player in our own half and he curls the ball into the top corner. It was unbelievable.
“If we are going to do anything in this league, we need to be seeing games like that out.
“I told them they’ve got to do the ugly side of the game better.
“We are trying to play football in areas of the park we shouldn’t be. Sometimes you just need to get rid of the ball instead of trying to play out from the back.”
The first half provided little goal mouth action, but the Jags woke from their slumber in 49 minutes when McKean produced an outstanding opening goal. The Jags were awarded a free-kick 20 yards from goal and McKean curled the ball round the wall and into the top corner to hand them the lead.
However, in the 89th minute the visitors were back on level terms in calamitous circumstances.
The Jags defence hesitated in trying to clear a long ball and Thomson fired a shot that keeper Noble palmed onto the line. Calum McLean kicked the ground trying to clear and fired the ball straight to Rush, whose strike found a way over the line as the Thistle defence fell over each other trying to keep the ball out.
Thistle woes were complete moments later when Morton collected a stray pass from the Thistle defence and curled home a fine strike to deal the killer blow.
It’s now back-to-back defeats for the Showpark side following last week’s 5-1 thrashing away to Wishaw.
And Paterson added: “It’s the first time I’ve really gone to town on the players in the dressing room.
“For 80 minutes we were in total control of the game. We weren’t at our best, but we still should have had enough to see the game out.
“If I’d been a fan leaving with 10 minutes to go, there’s no way you’d think it would end up 2-1 to Greenock.
“But we’ve given away two terrible goals from our point of view.
“I would have been raging if we got a draw out of the game, never mind losing it.
“I can’t really get my head around what happened, it’s so disappointing.
“All of Sunday I couldn’t talk about it. Usually I can brush defeats under the carpet and move on, but this was a bad one.”
The Jags now hope to bounce back against high-flying Neilston on Saturday. Kick-off at the Showpark is 2pm.