COWDENBEATH boss Gary Bollan lamented the defending which cost his team a result against Elgin City.

And he is wanting a big improvement at Annan this Saturday.

Losing a goal two minutes into the second period was bad enough, but to lose what was the winner to the last kick of the game was hard to take for the manager.

Cowdenbeath had competed well with the fifth top City side throughout and really should have been ahead before that 93rd minute winner came, but a couple of bad misses and City’s lethal Shane Sutherland saw the Blues lose a game they could have won.

It was a big chance to put a ten points gap between themselves and bottom side Albion Rovers but they failed to take it.

Said Mr Bollan: “Both their goals came in a similar fashion with long balls catching us out.

“We just did not show enough alertness at the opening of the second-half and gave a poor goal away leaving Dave McGurn with no cover.

“Then in the closing stages we simply are getting too deep and the big lad Sutherland gets played in and we lose.

“Hard to take maybe, but totally needless. We have lads at the back who know the score and they should have been playing much higher.”

But the manager was also disappointed that some of the second-half chances created by his side were not converted.

He added: “Even after we conceded the goal, just after the re-start, we created some really good chances and I counted five good openings where if we had taken the right option we had tap-ins.

“We simply were taking the wrong option too many times and that is something we will be working on this week.

“If we get the second goal we are in a very good position and a third puts the game to bed, but to continually take the wrong option is simply not good enough.”

The manager was disappointed to not get the win against a top five side and the stats show that Cowdenbeath are unbeaten against the bottom five teams but have not beaten a top five side.

So when Cowden travel to Annan this week they will be looking to break that run.

Annan are in the top four and have recorded a string of good results this term, but at Central Park earlier in the season they just held on to win 2-1 in a game which showed there was little between the teams.

“We have to ensure we stop making silly errors at both ends of the park,” said the manager.

“It is a hard enough game but if we eradicate the errors we can win these games against the better sides.

“Giving away goals and missing chances makes it awful difficult to win games but we can sort that out so we can look to start a run of wins.”

Cowden have no game on November 17 due to Queen’s Park playing in the Barrs Irn Bru Cup semi-finals and that match will be played at Central Park on Tuesday November 27.