Kevin Rutkiewicz admits East Kilbride’s shock defeat to lowly Edinburgh Uni has taken some of the sheen off their start to the Lowland League.
Kilby went down 3-2 at home to the students after they failed to heed their gaffer’s warning the previous week about not letting complacency set in against the so-called smaller teams in the league.
The loss is hot on the heels of a 1-1 draw at home to East Stirling and EK have been knocked off the top of the table by Rangers B and are level on points with third-place Caledonian Braves.
It’s now three weeks before they can fully get it out of their system, with cup business the focus for the next fortnight.
And Rutkiewicz said: “This has definitely taken a bit of shine off the good start we’ve had, there’s no doubt about it.
“The last two results at home have definitely hurt us but overall it has still been a decent start and we need to stay positive.
“There’s a long way to go. I certainly would have taken Caley Braves as favourites at Stirling Uni but they’ve been turned over, and Stirling have done us a wee favour in terms of the standings.
“I’m delighted with the journey we’ve been on the first two months and if you’d given me this position at the start of the season, I’d probably have taken it.
“But having got ourselves into a great position last week, it’s up to us to go and add the sheen back on our season.”
Asked if his players had failed to get up for the game, Rutkiewicz dismissed that notion.
He added: “The application was there, the execution wasn’t.
“The players got themselves into a position where they were chasing the game and the second goal for Edinburgh is a worldie.
“I don’t think the boy will score a goal like that again in his career.
“It was an unbelievable strike.
“In terms of big game-changing moments, we had one at Spartans and now we’ve been on the receiving end of one ourselves.
“It’s just important we learn our lessons from this week. We’ve got to be up for these games – and physically and mentally I think we were up for it – but it was just the quality that was missing.
“There were wee lapses. The boys are going to make mistakes and lose games of football, but it is important that when that happens we nip it in the bud.
“I’ll be concerned if I’m still talking about the same thing in three or four weeks.
“We’ve all got to prove to that we can come back from this.”
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