Dalbeattie Star boss Jordan Williamson admits his side must do better after failing to pick up any points from their first four Lowland League games.
Their latest blow came on Saturday when a first half horror show saw them ship five goals to Cumbernauld Colts.
Williamson, who moved to Islecroft from South of Scotland League champs St Cuthbert Wanderers in the summer, said: “We know it’s not good enough
and the players know it’s not good enough.
“We have to work hard to make it right. We’re working hard in training, we’re trying to rectify issues.
“We’re looking at players but it’s tough when we’re competing with opposition in the league to sign players. We don’t have the same resources and finances other clubs can offer.”
Stephen O’Neill gave the Colts the lead inside five minutes with Ewan Macpherson wasting no time in getting the second.
If the home fans hoped David Taylor’s 20th minute effort would spark a comeback they were sadly mistaken as Macpherson soon restored the two goal advantage.
And things would get much worse before the break as Macpherson completed his hat-trick before Cole McIntyre scored the fifth.
Steven Degnan scored 20 minutes from the end for Star but it was scant consolation, the visitors taking a comfortable win despite the dismissal of Dylan Tennant a few minutes from the end. Williamson said: “There were spells where we looked OK despite such a bad performance. We stuck together. If we’d gone in at 2-1 or 3-1 at half-time we could have fixed it but we conceded two goals in the last minutes of the half and it’s the end of the contest.
“We set the players the challenge of winning the second half and they did that. We need to look at these small positives. It’s the first 45 minutes we’ve won. The players can take confidence from that and we can use that as a platform to build on.
“If you look at the short term it’s not good enough and we’re not picking up points but we knew this would be a long term project. We were under no illusions how tough the job would be and the players were the same.
“It’s very much like when we were appointed at St Cuthberts. We struggled to pick up points because of the situation when we came in. We only won two games in the first nine.
“When we got to that point at Saints we turned the corner as we had the chance to work with the players. We know we will pick up points.”
Having arguably had a favourable fixture list to start the season, Star now go into an extremely tough run of games.
This weekend they go to Cowdenbeath - who were relegated from League Two last season – and then have a double-header against the Old Firm colts teams.
Williamson said: “Ahead of every game we look at picking up points, no matter who we’re playing - be it the ex League Two side, the B teams or the teams we’ve played in the last few weeks.
“You can look at things on paper and say they’re potentially more appealing for us to gain points from but in terms of where the first points will come, we look at that in every game that comes along. We fully believe in the way we work that points are available in every game.
“This next run of games look ominous in terms of picking up points on paper but we’ll head into every game looking to pick up points.
“Because they were the League Two side, Cowdenbeath have an aura about them in terms of coming up against them but they’ve found themselves in a similar position. They have struggled to adapt to the league and perhaps can only really appreciate the challenge that it is once you’re in the middle of it.
