Airdrieonians manager John Rankin has admitted his side's habit of being spooked after conceding goals is doing 'everybody's head in' after the Diamonds dropped to the foot of League One.
The Monklands men were 1-0 up at half time against fellow strugglers Queen of the South in Saturday's bottom-of-the-table clash at Palmerston, courtesy of Liam McLeish's 37th-minute strike.
However, Rankin watched his side capitulate after Cole Coughlin pulled the Doonhamers level in the 66th minute. The hosts then found a winner through Zander MacKenzie 12 minutes later to leapfrog the Diamonds at the foot of the division on goal difference, leaving Rankin's men still searching for their first win of the season.
Rankin: 'We need consistency'
Asked about his team's habit of looking all at sea when they concede, Rankin told the club media: "I think it is doing everybody's head in. We worked all week, looking at video of Queens and watching the same free-kick they score from."
"We need to fight to get that first contact and we didn't. We need consistency. I felt we were reasonably in control for the first half and then in the second half we let that go."
"We must manage situations better, be more in control when we are 1-0 up. They flipped shape and threw the kitchen sink at it. That kind of spooked us a wee bit."
Injuries and mentality
Rankin also pointed to the impact of losing two key players to injury. "When you look at the first half, I thought our performance was fine. I think in the second half, when we make the substitutions after Dylan [MacDonald] and Cole [McKinnon] are both forced off and at that point it made a huge impact on the game."
"We took two of our better players off [because of injury] and we never reacted to that. It felt like we started to feel sorry for ourselves in the game and thought about how we would get over the line, when we were in a good position winning 1-0 away from home."
"At that point, we lacked belief, desire and commitment to go and get the three points. That is not right. It doesn't matter who replaces them; we need to make sure we have the mentality - and that's what we lacked, the mentality."
"It is not ideal circumstances taking those two off but we can't risk them getting injured again. But we need a better mentality, somebody to stand up. The reality is we never stood up to the challenge in the last 30 minutes and that is not acceptable."
"We need to make sure whoever is on that pitch rolls their sleeves up and is willing to do the nasty side of the game."
Looking ahead
Airdrie now face St Mirren B in the KDM Trophy on Tuesday before hosting third-place Alloa on Saturday.
Rankin added: "I shouldn't be hard to gee them up. They are professional players and they should have professional pride. They need the bit between their teeth and react to this. There is no point feeling sorry for ourselves."
"The game is done and dusted and we need to move on quickly. We were much more of a threat going forward but there were more gaps defensively. Eventually we will get some kind of consistency."
