Neilston manager Kevin Muirhead admits he expects much better from his players as they were beaten at Maybole on Saturday.

The Farmer’s Boys were narrowly defeated in Ayrshire, their fourth league defeat in six games, and are currently joint lowest scorers in the league.

The Brig O’Lea side have looked solid defensively with the opening day loss at Drumchapel the only time they have been convincingly beaten with just the odd goal in their other defeats.

Despite that, Neilston have conceded the third least amount of goals in the division and Muirhead insists it’s easy to see where the problems currently lie.

Speaking to Barrhead Sport, he said: “Before Saturday there was real signs of improvement and I felt like we were starting to get to where we wanted to be and then the game was a bit of a setback.

“The performance wasn’t to the levels we would expect so it was a sore one to take.

“We didn’t threaten as much as I hoped we would and it didn’t just click up the pitch whereas in the last few games we have moved the ball well and caused opposition teams issues and scored a few goals.

“I think we could have played all day long on Saturday and not scored, it just felt as if we were out of ideas at times.

“The players knew on no uncertain terms that I expected much more of them so hopefully we can get it right.

“Defensively we have done really well and that’s with a brand-new defence.

“I don’t think Maybole undone us, it was just that we didn’t work to our own standard.”

It’s now a free week for Neilston as the Scottish Junior Cup dominates the fixture list this weekend which allows Muirhead plenty of time on the training park with his players.

However, he admits he would rather get straight back into a game to try and pick up another victory.

He added: “We had the win over Blantyre a couple of weeks ago and then we played in the cup last weekend which was something we didn’t really want to do; we wanted to try and keep our momentum in the league going.

“After Saturday I would prefer that we had a game midweek just to get another one under our belt right away and put it behind us.

“Now we’ve got a two week wait until we have a league game again and it’s against Renfrew who are a team that are right around us in the table so it’s a huge game early in the season.

“I would prefer we were playing this week but it allows us work with the squad and sort a few things out.”