There was a sense of déjà vu for East Kilbride Thistle boss Aaron Connolly as his side had to come from behind for the second time this season against Newmains to draw 2-2.
Last time out, the player boss had to throw himself on from the bench late on and while history also repeated itself in that regard, there was to be no last-minute goal for Connolly, like he managed in August’s draw at Victoria Park.
On Saturday goals from trialist Pat O’Donnell and David Gray helped the Jags come from 2-0 down to earn a point in the West of Scotland Third Division clash at the Showpark.
But Connolly was gutted his side didn’t take more from the game after feeling they dominated the match
He said: “Last time we were 2-1 down and came from behind so it was very similar in terms of the outcome of the game, but in terms of how we played it was absolutely night and day.
“I did have to put myself on again as well. We were down to the bare bones and I had to come on for the last 25 minutes, but lightning didn’t strike twice with a goal unfortunately.
“I tried to go on and use my experience to help us nick something but, sadly, it wasn’t to be.
“It is as well as we’ve played for a full 90 minutes in my time here, so we are really disappointed we have only picked up a point.
“Other than a mistake from a corner from our goalkeeper and us failing to deal with a ball into the box, we were fine and I was in disbelief that we were 2-0 down at half-time.
“We were utterly dominant. In the second half we continued to do that and we were knocking on the door before getting our goals.
“I’m hugely disappointed for the players that we only got a point. They played very well considering the challenges we’ve had recently.
“I’ve spoken about them before but we were still missing six players at the weekend – four of whom would have started – so we’ve really been stretched to our limits.
“But I’m really pleased with the performance on the whole and just a wee bit of naivety has cost us the points on the day.
“We showed a good level of resilience to get back into the game, which we’ve had to do a couple of times this season, and the message to the players is just to keep playing in the manner we have been.”
The result keeps Thistle ninth in the table after five wins from 15 games.
Meanwhile, Connolly hopes to have three players back from injury for Saturday’s West of Scotland Cup clash at home to BSC Glasgow’s B team.
The Jags had several players missing against Newmains, but now hope to have numbers back.
Connolly said: “BSC are a bit of an unknown for us. We haven’t had the chance to watch BSC but we will hopefully have a few players back in terms of injuries.
“That will help strengthen us. We are hoping Ally McDonald, Dino Molinari and Ross Kennedy could all come back in, but Martin Smith and Ryan Anderson still look like being out.”
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