Rutherglen Glencairn assistant manager Joe Pryce wasn’t happy with his side’s standard on Saturday – but poor refereeing decisions didn’t help their cause.
Troon emerged 2-1 victors in the West of Scotland Football League Premier Division clash against Glens on Saturday.
Fraser Malcolm netted a consolation in stoppage time for Rutherglen, but the damage was already done as Sam Jamieson and Ben Black had scored against them before half-time.
Pryce’s men are ninth in the table and Troon moved one point behind them with the win.
He admitted: “It was a disappointing result but it was a disappointing day for us. There is a certain standard you need to reach in order to win games in the top division.
“On Saturday, we didn’t get anywhere near those levels. We didn’t even get close to them. We didn’t give ourselves a chance but credit to Troon, they were so much better than us and deserved to go home with the three points.
“The scoreline made it look tight but the performance levels weren’t tight at all.
“Troon were much better than us. But we talk about fine margins in the game.
“To win games in the top league, you have to hit a certain level to give yourself a chance of winning games. On Saturday we weren’t near it and that hasn’t been like us.”
Pryce was disappointed when the match referee proved a road block to Rutherglen getting themselves into gear. As the home side looked to have found a goal when 2-0 down, the official pulled it back for a free-kick.
The Glens assistant explained: “The referee makes a poor call by disallowing a goal for us in order to give us a free-kick outside the box. We were told that was more of an advantage than a goal.
“I don’t know where he got that from but it happens. We don’t dwell on this, we just have to move on.”
Seven teams will be relegated from the Premier Division this season and Rutherglen find themselves five points above the drop zone, although some teams have as many as three games in hand.
Pryce adds that performances like Saturday’s can’t appear too often in the top tier, as Beith Juniors await this weekend for Glens.
He added: “We have been competing really well in this division.
“It’s a tight league and a cut-throat division, but it was always going to be that way with seven teams going down.
“We will be much better against Beith this Saturday. The players know that themselves so we are looking forward to it.”
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