Threave Rovers’ South of Scotland League title hopes have suffered a blow for the second week running.
Two weeks ago, the Castle Douglas side were four points behind leaders St Cuthbert Wanderers but had two games in hand.
But after back-to-back defeats to Stranraer and Lochar Thistle, the gap remains the same and they’ve now played as many matches as their rivals.
Boss Vinnie Parker said: “We’re certainly chasing but we’re only half way through the season.
“The problem is other teams have caught up on us now. The likes of Abbey Vale are right back in the mix and we’ve still got a lot to do. It’s going to be a tough task but it always was. It should be an exciting run-in.”
All looked fine for Threave at Lochar on Saturday as they raced into a two goal lead courtesy of a header from Tommy Smith and a strike from Tom Coles.
However, goals from Brodie Turner and Liam Robertson had Lochar level by the break.
And there was a dramatic finale with Joe McMillan grabbing an incredible winner with virtually the last kick of the ball.
Parker said: “For half an hour, some of the passing was brilliant. I think we put together 30 passes before we scored one of the goals. We then just took the foot clean off the gas and lost a couple of bad goals before half-time.
“We were more than capable of going and sealing the game but the more we pushed, the more we left ourselves open.
“The goal they scored for the winner was brilliant, the boy has flicked it over his head and he’s went and lobbed our goalkeeper.
“We’re not the finished article. We’re still a work in progress but it’s massively disappointing to lose another three points away from home.
“You can’t win games within 30 minutes, you need to keep working for 90 minutes.
“I don’t know if some boys just think they need to turn up and the score will take care of itself or leave it for someone else to do the business.
“When you stop working and the other team works harder then you don’t deserve to get anything out of the game.
“We work hard in training all week, the tempo in training is superb, we just took our foot off the gas.
“It’s as if we got bored after half an hour. It’s disappointing but it’s my job to rectify it.”
Threave have a break from the league this week as they welcome Mid Annandale to Meadow Park in the Tweedie Cup.
And the recent defeats mean there are likely to be changes to the team.
Parker added: “Since myself and Kevin Somerville came in last year we feel we’ve been let down in big games, especially in the second half performances away from
home.
“We need to fix something so if that’s changing personnel or another change of the system we’ll look at doing that.
“We need to come up with something and put it right.”
Ryan Coates and Adam Uphill could be back from injury this weekend, with Ryan Adamson making his return in the final quarter of an hour against Lochar.
