East Kilbride Thistle co-boss 'mystified' by second-half collapse

East Kilbride Thistle co-boss Alan Paterson was left mystified as his side fell to a 4-1 defeat at Yoker on Saturday, despite putting in a ‘top performance’ in the first half.

Paterson says anybody leaving at half-time with the West of Scotland League Conference C clash at 1-1 would have expected red cards or mayhem in the second period to produce the emphatic defeat, but insists he has no idea what happened.

He said: “I felt the first 45 minutes was the best we’d played in a long time, we were unlucky to be going in at 1-1.

“I felt we had dominated the game, we were sharp, first to every ball, and just taking a wee bit of care in front of goal and we would have won the game.

“We missed a good number of chances, we battered Yoker in the first half, and then came out in the second half and I don’t know what happened.

“We gave away a cheap second goal, then a cheap third and the fourth just summed it up, because it was a comedy of errors.

“I’m baffled that the team that played in the first 45 minutes was the same team that lost that game.

“If you left that game at half-time and somebody had said we got beat 4-1, you’d be saying: ‘Why? Did they get players sent off or something’?

“You’d never have know that was the outcome, so that was disappointing.

“We had five boys from the under-20s in our squad, on the bench and one starting, because we were down to the bare bones.

“But I just cannot fathom how we lost that game.”

Jags are idle now until travelling to Neilston on April 2, and Paterson (pictured, left) says that might give them a chance to get players back.

He said: “We have a free weekend and it gives us a couple of weeks to try and get boys back fit, and other boys coming back from injuries.

“At least with no fixture