East Kilbride boss Mick Kennedy insists injuries and inexperience were their downfall in Dingwall as Ross County racked up a 4-0 win.
Kilby headed for the Highlands on Saturday night in relatively high spirits after a promising start to the campaign and they held their own against the Staggies for much of the first 45 minutes, until luck deserted them towards the end of the half.
Early changes and a stoppage-time blow
Injuries to defender Jamie Hamilton and Malik Zaid forced EK into early changes before Brian Graham broke the deadlock with literally the final kick of the half in stoppage time to put County 1-0 up.
Andrew Kyle didn't make it out for the second half after taking a knock to the ankle and 19-year-old Owen Calder came on to replace him at left-back.
County's quick-fire double
Within three minutes of the re-start Luke McCarvel's strike doubled County's advantage and Calder was caught in possession in the build-up to County's third three minutes later, with Jamie Lindsay netting.
Graham grabbed his second in 72 minutes to seal the points and maintain their perfect start to the season.
Kennedy's verdict
But Kennedy was philosophical post-match as he admitted County's quality in the face of all of Kilby's problems was always going to be too much to handle.
He told Lanarkshire Live Sport: "This game is not going to define anything. I always felt with the injuries we had, we had to be at our absolute best but we clearly struggled a bit."
"You need to work your way through these moments. There is no point getting too down."
"We have a young, inexperienced group so there are going to be tough moments in the season."
"Malik was carrying an injury so it was a risk playing him. We needed to take Andrew Kyle off at half-time as well because he has been out injured for a few weeks and wasn't really fit either, while Jamie has come off as well."
"Unfortunately, the squad is just not strong enough to cope with these kinds of losses."
"When you are playing opposition of the level Ross County are at, it is worth a risk trying to keep them in the group. Jamie had been out a couple of weeks ago and his injury was just a recurrence of his [knee] issue."
"You can see that lack of depth in the squad and inexperience that is there at times as well. So when you are playing against a level of opposition like Ross County - who, let's be honest are of a level at the top end of the Championship - it becomes difficult."
"We were never under any incessant pressure or anything. It wasn't like we couldn't get out."
"It was just that our mistakes got punished and you have to expect that against that level of opposition."
"For us to be that level, we need to have everyone available and be at our best and we didn't have either of those."
"I thought the first half was fairly even. They hit the bar, we hit the post. We had a lot of control of the game without hurting them and they caught us on the break a few times without hurting us."
"I felt fairly comfortable going into half-time but we lose the goal with the last kick of the half, and we lost Malik and Jamie as well. Young Owen coming on makes a mistake for the third goal, so there was just a wee bit of lack of depth in the group."
"We just need to get back in this week and regroup."
League position and next up
The result inflicted back-to-back league defeats on Kilby after last week's 3-0 loss at Montrose and leaves them fourth in the table, five points behind leaders Hamilton Accies who have played a game more than County and sit a point clear of them.
East Kilbride now host Accies in a Lanarkshire derby at K-Park next Saturday.
