St Cuthbert Wanderers boss Josh Gardner was able to take encouragement from Sunday’s Cree Lodge Cup loss to Threave Rovers.
Although Saints lost 3-1 in the derby, Gardner was pleased with the display from his under strength side.
He said: “We were down to the bare bones with a goalkeeper outfield and no fit centre-backs. We had a makeshift defence with people playing out of position.
“The boys were brilliant, they defended really well and couldn’t do much about the goals they conceded.
“I think the first goal had a hint of offside, the second was from a corner but they were really strong on set-pieces and their third goal was really well worked and that was decisive.
“I was really positive about the performance and if we can get more of that going into the league games we’ll be in a far better place than we are just now so it was really encouraging.
“You would never have thought looking at the game they were out of position – they were very well drilled and organised so credit to the players that came in.
“They probably didn’t deserve to lose the game and they did really well.
“Threave are a really good side with lots of good players.”
Threave opened the scoring through Tam Coles but Dillon Black fired past former team-mate Jake Gemmell to send the sides in level at the break.
But Dan Orsi restored Threave’s lead before Connor Potts bagged the crucial third.
This weekend Saints are at home once again with Upper Annandale heading to Kirkcudbright for a league fixture.
Gardner said: “We seem to play against Uppers nearly every week.
“We’ve beaten them 3-1 and they beat us 2-0.
“We were really disappointed with our performance in the away game – we didn’t challenge their keeper and had no shots on target.
“Hopefully we can get a few bodies back but I don’t think we’ll have any fit centre backs, although strangely I’m not that fussed after what I saw from the boys on Sunday.”
