Neilston boss urges players to start turning up for the full game

The Farmer’s Boys came from a goal down to secure a 1-1 draw as a below-par first half performance was followed by an impressive showing after the break.

The hosts took the lead thanks to Jordan Thompson’s strike but Neilston fought back and were rewarded when Cammy Haddow slotted a penalty in the 52nd minute.

Muirhead feels his team should then have gone on to claim all three points.

He told Barrhead Sport: “At half-time it would have been a point gained but, if we had played for 90 minutes like we played in the second half, it would have been two points dropped.

“We made it very difficult for ourselves in the first half but, in the second half, we blew them away. We just couldn’t find the winner.

“At half-time, I felt we were kick-and-rush. We wanted to get the ball forward really quickly and we weren’t doing the right things.

“The surface made it difficult to play good football but I felt we were just hitting the ball up and hoping to play off scraps.

“It’s not the way we want to play football and, in the second half, we used the ball a wee bit more, used the pitch to our advantage and went and met them physically.

“When you go to James McGrory Park, you need to be there for a battle and I felt we weren’t up for that in the first half but that changed after half-time.”

Neilston were quickly back in action on Monday night as they lost 4-3 to Yoker Athletic in a competitive friendly at Holm Park.

Muirhead admits that match left him scratching his head as he prepares for this Saturday’s Strathclyde Demolition Cup tie at Third Division outfit Port Glasgow, which kicks off at 2pm.

He said: “Monday was a training exercise but it’s probably posed more questions than it answered. It was miles short of the standard we would need to play at in our league.

“Playing on their plastic park on Saturday, we’ve got to be better or it’ll be Port Glasgow that are in the next round of the cup and not us.”