Twenty minute spell costs St Cuthbert Wanderers against Nithsdale Wanderers

A 20 minute spell cost St Cuthbert Wanderers dearly against Nithsdale Wanderers on Saturday.

The Kirkcudbright side went down 5-0 in Sanquhar in the Cree Lodge Cup, with four of the goals coming in a first half blitz.

Saints boss Ian Clark said: “We were playing the right way, we competed really well, were creating chances, then in a spell of 20 minutes we conceded four goals.

“That’s the biggest disappointment for me – those 20 minutes are nowhere near the standard that is acceptable.

“It comes down to individual errors again. It was 20 minutes where we didn’t do the fundamentals of tracking men, stopping crosses and working hard.

“I was encouraged when we went two or three down that we kept trying to do what we wanted to do – play out from the back, setting up from set pieces how we want to.

“Four of the goals came from people not tracking men and it’s down to me and my coaching staff to say if the players aren’t going to do that job, we’ll get someone who will.”

Steven Degnan fired in a hat-trick for Nithsdale with Aiden Lang and Rhys Griffiths also on target.

Clark said: “For the first 20 minutes we were solid and in the second half we played some really good football, we just needed to be that bit more clinical in front of goal.

“There were definitely encouraging signs. Sixteen-year-old Scott Harper came off the bench and was man of the match.

“If we can be more clinical we can start to see teams off.

“Losing is a habit as much as winning is a habit. The guys are in every Tuesday and Thursday and it would be easy for many of them to say they didn’t sign up for getting beaten every week.

“Lesser players would have walked away but I still have 18 or 19 coming in and I can only applaud them in