A dismal start left St Peter’s facing an uphill battle against Division 4 title hopefuls Finnart.
In blustery and rain-soaked conditions, the Paisley side were behind within the opening minute as the league leaders raced into an early lead.
The home side went further ahead within the first 15 minutes with a well-taken finish, giving the visitors even more of a tough ask to come away with anything.
And despite trialist Jordan Sneddon’s late consolation goal, they returned to Renfrewshire with nothing to show for their efforts.
St Peter’s boss Paul McTaggart admitted his side simply weren’t at the races against the team he feels has been the best they’ve faced in the division.
McTaggart said: “You can’t afford to start so slowly and we need to learn from that.
“We’d hardly kicked a ball and suddenly we were 1-0 down with a mountain to climb.
“We just weren’t at the races and gifted away two goals very early on.
“For two of the better teams in the league it was a very poor game. It was dire to be honest and their gaffer agreed as well.
“It was so exposed at their park and the weather was awful. It was so blustery and then it was chucking it down.
“It was tough conditions to play nice football in.
“Even so they’re still the best team we’ve played in the league, in my eyes, and we just need to take it on the chin and move on.
“I wasn’t pleased with the boys and let them know that at half-time, but they were disappointed already in themselves.
“They knew they hadn’t reached the standards they needed to and now we just need to bounce back and focus on finishing the campaign as strongly as we can.”
While now out of the title race, St Peter’s can still finish second in their debut year in the West of Scotland League set up.
As well as targeting that runner-up spot, McTaggart is also very keep to run the rule over some of his fringe players to see if they will continue to have a future with the club next season.
He revealed he will also be calling up more under-20’s players to see if they will be ready to make the step up in the future.
McTaggart said: “We’ve got six games left to play and for me now it’s all about having a proper look at some players and seeing what the future holds for them.
“We brought Sneddon in a couple of weeks ago and he’s been training very well.
“I put him on against Finnart with 20 minutes to go and he worked very hard.
“He was a nuisance for their backline and he he scored a great header.
“He’s certainly not done himself any harm going forward.
“Jamie Menzies and Sean Fitzpatrick were both up from the under-20’s and I thought they held their own again too.
“Fitzy is avery dynamic midfielder. He’s in your face and loves a tackle. He made a difference and hopefully we’ll see him a few more times as well between now and the end of the season.
“We’ve got a friendly lined up against Neilston and I told them already that I’d be bringing a young squad because I’m looking to see how they’ll handle the step up to senior football.
“We need to see who’s ready for it next season.”
Next up for St Peter’s is a crunch clash with Harthill Royal at New Western Park this Saturday.
McTaggart added: “It’s a good game for us to try and bounce back in from the Finnart loss.
“We can still catch second spot and that’s got to be our target.
“We don’t want the season to fizzle out.We want to finish as strongly as we can so we go into next season on a positive note.”
