Cambuslang Rangers co-boss Billy Campbell felt his side deserved something from their defeat to Cumnock after a strong first half performance.
But the Somervell Park side were left to rue their finishing as the Ayrshire men claimed a 2-0 victory with a second-half double from Jordan Moore.
It’s now back-to-back defeats for Camby in their first two games of life in the West of Scotland Premier Division and it doesn’t get any easier with the visit of Auchinleck Talbot on Saturday.
Campbell, though, feels he has plenty of positives to take from their recent outing, despite the scoreline.
He said: “We are disappointed by the result but we actually played very well.
“In the first half we deserved to come in at least even. We hit the post, hit the crossbar, pushed Cumnock hard.
“We probably had three clear-cut chances in the first-half that on another day, we’d be going into the break at least 1-0 up.
“In the second half, we were a wee bit unsettled and we didn’t continue our good form after the break.
“Cumnock came out better and pushed us hard. We lost a couple of goals we could have defended better.
“Once the second one goes in we are really chasing it. But we still created another three good chances.
“Paul [McColl, the co-boss] and I mulled over what we could have done differently and I genuinely don’t think we could have played much better, other than put the ball in the back of the net.
“With a wee bit of luck and rub of the green, we get at least a point on another day. However, the result doesn’t say ‘played well and got beat 2-0’, it says ‘beat 2-0’. It’s as simple as that.
“As nice it was of Cumnock to say we’d played well, we feel we should have come away with something.”
Sixth tier giants and last season’s runners-up Talbot now visit Somervell Park on Saturday and Campbell says his side will give it a good shot, despite the gulf between the two sides.
He added: “We’ve not got the unenviable task of playing Auchinleck this weekend.
“It is another massive challenge. It’s a massive jump financially and the level of players they’ve got, but that doesn’t mean we are not up for the challenge.
“The boys that we’ve got there will give everything they can.
“I’m not panicking about the setup we have and the players we have in place because they played well on Saturday, pressed hard, worked hard and created chances.
“We’ll stay positive and keep pushing them. We knew this league was going to be a tough gig for us and if you give away a couple of chances, you will be punished.
“It’s as tough as we knew it would be, but a wee bit of finesse and we’ll be in a better place.”
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