Albion Rovers boss Brian Reid admits his side need to start killing teams off in League Two after conceding a late equaliser to 10-man Stirling Albion.
The Cliftonhill side were on course for a superb win over high-flying Binos after Charlie Reilly’s first-half strike had them 1-0 and a man to the good heading into the final few minutes, following Robert Thomson’s 67th minute red card for a late challenge on Deven McColl.
However, Rovers couldn’t see the game out and Binos equalised when Dale Carrick netted from Kai Fotheringham’s free-kick delivery.
Reid had complaints about the free-kick award but was more disappointed about his side’s failure to see the game out.
He said: “We are so disappointed to lose that late goal. We just needed that second goal to kill the game off and if we’d have got it, we’d have won the game. It was a sore one.
“In the last few games it has been proven one goal isn’t enough for us.
“It was a poor decision from the referee to give the free-kick before it. It hits the boy in the face and he gives a handball for it. And, sure enough, the ball is clipped in and they score from it with 86 minutes gone.
“We’ve got to defend the moment better but it is never a free kick in the first place.
“For most parts of the game you wouldn’t have known who was up at the top end of the league, so it was good effort from the players, especially with a lot of first team players missing through injury. The guys have stepped up to the plate and played well.”
Reid also felt his players went into their shell after Binos went down to 10, rather than going for the kill.
He added: “Sometimes that reinvigorates a team and it did seem to give Stirling a lift. I think our problem was we started dropping too deep, just trying to see out the time and that was a mistake from the players.
“It’s a natural thing you do sometimes, but that was a mistake in terms of how we played it.
"There was still plenty of time left and dropping too deep for my liking helped them get something from the game.”
The result keeps Rovers ninth in the table as they were denied the opportunity to climb the table.
It was also their fourth draw on the spin across 90 minutes, following an extra-time victory over Glasgow Uni in the Scottish Cup last month, and Reid says it is proving costly.
”Draws are hurting us at the moment,” he conceded. “If we can cut out the draws in these games we deserve to win, we’d probably be sitting in mid-table or in the play-off spots.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
