Coach Ian Turley is demanding a Scottish Cup response from his side after the Paisley Pirates suffered an “unacceptable” home humbling at the hands of Kirkcaldy Kestrels.
The Renfrewshire club were hoping to pick up their fourth win on the spin at Braehead Arena on Sunday evening but ended up on the receiving end of a painful defeat in their own rink.
While Turley insists he isn’t hitting the panic button after the shock loss, he is urging his side to quickly recover for the sake of their fans when they return to the ice against Dundee Tigers on cup duty this Sunday.
Turley told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “It was a shocking night. It was one of those games when nobody turned up.
“We had the bulk of possession but we didn’t create enough golden opportunities. We didn’t test their netminder enough and our go to guys simply weren’t at it.
“Sometimes these results happen in ice hockey. But for me the biggest surprise was there was just no response from our players.
“At our home rink, this kind of performance is simply unacceptable.
“We weren’t in the game and it felt like we just weren’t interested. We let our own punters down, they deserved their money back. Fans can understand losing a game if you lose in the right manner. If you perform well and are beaten by the better team, that happens in sport.
“But this was a seriously bad night at the office and it’s up to us now to put things right against Dundee Tigers this weekend.”
The sore defeat saw Pirates sink back to fourth in the SNL table, with league leaders Aberdeen Lynx now five points clear of Turley’s side at the summit.
Turley hopes the loss serves as a lesson to his players that they simply can’t let their standards drop against any team in the division.
He said: “The Scottish Cup has changed this season so now it’s just one game per round, winner takes all deal.
“There’s no better way for us to put that Kestrels defeat to bed than to come out and win this weekend. Our fans deserve that.
“They’ve beaten us in our last three outings against them, including in overtime this season.
“We’re looking for a response from every single player this weekend because no-one was up to the standard required last time out.
“It’s not panic stations at all. That result wasn’t a reflection of where we are as a club and we simply have to use it as a learning tool.
“The league is so tight this year and if you have an off night you can be beaten convincingly, as we’ve unfortunately seen.
“If we don’t step up to the mark then we’ll get punished for it. We can’t let that happen again.”
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