East Kilbride boss Stevie Aitken admits he is frustrated his players couldn’t find their shooting boots on Saturday after passing up a host of chances in their draw with Bo’ness United.
Kilby had to come from behind to salvage a point at K-Park, with Craig Malcolm’s equaliser keeping them one point clear of rivals East Stirlingshire and two ahead of their weekend opponents at the top of the Lowland League.
Aitken’s side and Bo’ness are the only unbeaten sides left in the division, but the Kilby boss insists his side’s failure to kill the game off in the first-half came back to bite them.
He said: “We created enough chances to win three or four games, especially in the first half, so we are disappointed not to win it.
“We lost a sloppy goal, but the boys came back well and scored a good goal.
“The guys had chances to have the game tied up at half-time, but if you don’t take them, the longer the game goes the more difficult it gets.
“We got a bit disjointed trying to get the winner, but it wasn’t to be.
“We are dominating games and creating a lot of chances, but unfortunately we are not taking them.
“But if you look at the forward players at the moment we’ve had a few injuries.
“Darren Smith has been out, Craig Malcolm has missed out, Daryl Healy is still getting up to speed and Chris Erskine is not an out-and-out striker, so we know if we don’t take our chances it can come back to haunt you – and that’s what happened on Saturday.”
Kilby had a midweek clash with Dalbeattie Star postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and their draw with United saw them fail to build on a vital 1-0 win over defending champions Kelty Hearts last week.
Results have left things pretty crowded at the summit with just three points separating the top six sides.
”I think it was always going to be tight this season,” said Aitken.
“We’ve played nine games so far and not lost, so that’s a positive for us.
“I think there’s about five or six teams around us who will take points off each other and they all have to play each.
“They all can’t win and you play everyone twice. We are up there at the moment and there will be a lot of teams challenging. We are satisfied with the start.
"Could it have been better? Yes, it could have, but there’s a long way to go and we are in a strong position.
“We are not going to press the panic button. If we keep creating chances, we’ll win more games than we lose.”
This Saturday EK are in Challenge Cup action when they travel to West of Scotland League side St Anthony’s.
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
