Wullie Gibson reckons his Queens defenders were bullied by cup rivals Annan.
Now he is calling on them to make up for the Premier Sports Cup defeat by showing some steel against Ayr tonight.
The Doonhamers cup campaign got off to a bad start with a disappointing 3-2 defeat.
And the new boss believes his League One side need to be perfect from now on to qualify.
He said: “Ayr United is another big game. It’s a derby. Obviously defeat on Saturday means we need to win the next three games to qualify – in my opinion you need nine points. Anything less than that isn’t going to do it now so we need to go there and win.”
The feisty Group F clash was settled by a late Lewis Hunter goal for the Galabankies.
Gibson admitted: “It’s frustrating because we scored two really good goals and had to work really hard for them.
“I thought we were past losing cheap goals after looking solid in pre-season.
“But we gave away the goals very cheaply. The first one the boys say it was a foul and another goal came after Max (Currie) pulled off a good save but they are the first to react and score. Our boys have to anticipate that.
“The first half wasn’t good enough for us but I thought in the second that we controlled it. But take nothing away from Annan and I said to the boys that it has got to be a lot better from one to 11.”
Gibson is determined to haul his team back on track after a tough opener with the Galabankies.
It was a battling local derby and Gibson said: “They bullied our back line throughout the first half and they definitely came here to win.
“But he felt he had to play every week and moved on to Annan. I would rather get the defeats out the way now before the League campaign starts.”
