MICHAEL Tidser rued “individual errors” that led to his side falling to a 3-1 defeat at Alloa Athletic on Saturday.
Tidser’s Kelty visited Recreation Park looking to maintain their spot near the top of the table and started off very strongly.
Reece Lyon opened the scoring with a superb strike that rattled off the crossbar, leaving Alloa’s Tochukwu Ogayi with no chance of stopping it.
Alloa recovered quickly, however, with forward Bradley Rodden bringing the Wasps back into the fold with his equaliser.
Kelty came out in the second half looking to re-establish their lead, but Alloa found a breakthrough when Jason Thomson left a leg out a fraction too late, bringing down Bobby Wales in the process.
Alloa took the lead after Scott Taggart made no mistake from the spot.
However, Kelty looked rejuvenated for the rest of the match, getting the ball forward and testing the Alloa defence.
The tie was put to bed with ten minutes to spare, though, as Taylor Steven scored Alloa’s third to consign Kelty to defeat.
Speaking to the Times afterwards, Tidser reflected on isolated errors which cost Kelty a share of the spoils on Saturday.
“I’m hugely frustrated losing any game of football,” Tidser said.
“I genuinely mean this when I say it: I thought for large spells, we were the better team.
“We passed the ball about, broke their lines a few times and got in behind, had two great chances, one from Reece and one from Moore and we had a couple of half chances.
“But goals change games and we obviously give away the penalty which happens, I can’t be overcritical of it.
“I thought we lost a bit of shape and confidence after that. We were still in the game at 2-1 and I emphasised that to them after the game.
“I’m bitterly disappointed but the boys are doing everything I ask, it’s probably just some individual errors that are costing us at the moment."
Results around them in the league mean that Kelty stay within the playoff positions after Stirling conceded a late goal to Falkirk.
Tidser was keen to emphasise that his mind wasn’t on the playoffs just yet, and instead was just aiming to win as many games as they could.
He added: “When I came in, my aim is for the club to just stay in the league; this is a tough league. You’ve got teams like Alloa and Montrose that have been there for years.
“There’s four full time clubs in the league as well, so it’s very hard, it’s very competitive, but forget play-offs, I just want to focus on winning games of football.
“We’ll see where we are come the end of the season.”
Next up for Kelty is a chance to bounce back against Stirling, who pay a visit to New Central Park this Saturday.
Stirling have started the season strongly since their promotion from League Two, beating Kelty 1-0 in the reverse fixture back in August.
Tidser added that his side will be looking to channel the disappointment in Alloa and use it to their advantage this weekend.
He continued: “You want to win games against the teams around about you, especially part-time teams, but I can see they’re disappointed, they’re hurting.
“That’s the way it should be, I’m hurting, we’re all hurting; the staff, the club. Sometimes you need to take your medicine and the best answer for that is to put in a strong performance next week.
“I’ve said it from day one I’m here to win games of football, I don’t like getting beat.
“Stirling will come and as I said, they’re a good side, they’re up there as well. Every game is tough and we need to earn the right to go win games of football.
“We’re looking forward to it, we’ll get a good weeks’ training in and we’ll take it from there.”
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