Kilbywill learnfrom late sting
Craig Malcolm admits Saturday’s late collapse to Edinburgh City was a real eye-opener for East Kilbride.
Kilby were heading into the third round of the IRN-BRU Cup after strikes from Ross McNeil and Malcolm in the space of a minute cancelled out Blair Henderson’s opener for City.
But with 84 minutes on the clock Allan Smith equalised for the League Two leaders and he headed home the winner moments later to stun the Lowland outfit.
After bossing the game against SPFL opposition, skipper Malcolm said: “It’s a bit of a sickener.
“You can’t afford to switch off with six minutes to go because better sides will punish you for it.
“This is a bit of an eyeopener for us.
“If that had been a league game we’d have seen it out and maybe scored some more. But that’s the standard we need to be at. They’ve had about four chances the whole game and scored three, so it’s a lesson that we need to be on our game.
“I thought we were the better team and we didn’t deserve it, but hopefully, long term, it’s the kick up the backside that makes sure we don’t make those mistakes again.”
City are the pacesetters in League Two with four wins from five games, with just two goals conceded.
However, they were there for the taking at K-Park and Kilby’s display for 84 minutes provides a lot of encouragement for their league campaign and their hopes of defeating the bottom team in League Two, should they reach the SPFL play-offs this season.
Malcolm added: “If that’s the best League Two has got to throw at us then we’ve got nothing to fear in the future.
“I thought our back four were excellent for the majority of the game and we proved we can compete at this level.
“We did all the hard work and then threw it away.”