Furious East Kilbride Thistle co-boss 'embarrassed' by defeat in Lanark clash

Furious EK Thistle co-boss Alan Paterson blasted his side after a 2-0 home defeat by Lanark United – branding their performance “embarrassing.”

Paterson says the score-line flattered his side in what was the worst 45 minutes of his Showpark reign so far.

And he revealed he could barely speak to his players after losing to the bottom side in West of Scotland Conference C.

Paterson said: “I’m not one for slaughtering players, but the first 45 minutes was possibly the worst I’ve seen – it was embarrassing, especially the first 20 minutes.

“We couldn’t string two passes together, we were all over the place, and Lanark outplayed us, outfought us, out-everythinged us, it was terrible.

“Being 2-0 down at half-time flattered us; it could have been five or six, they missed some right good chances.

“I just felt as if it was one of those days and we could still be there just now and not have scored. Nothing clicked.

“We played Lanark twice before, they scored with the last kick of the ball to get a draw against us, and then we went up there in the cup, totally outplayed them and never looked in any doubt.

“They have a new manager in, and a lot of new players, but I felt as if we had a good enough squad to do something on Saturday, so it was a right body-blow.

“All the credit has to go to them, they were the far better side and in the second half we huffed and puffed. If we had taken anything from the game it would’ve been daylight robbery to be perfectly honest with you.

“I didn’t say anything to them after the game, because if you’re going to rant and rave all the time it just becomes white noise, the players say ‘he’s away again’.

“I don’t know what it is, because we’ve got a very good passing side.”

Thistle now visit Ardrossan