By DYLAN INGLIS
at Nithside Park
THEY travelled a distance to get there.
But Craig Gupwell hopes defeat at Kello can be the route back to winning ways.
Again Newmains were missing a host of players through injury, suspension and holidays.
But co-boss Gupwell is confident they can find the form that saw them impress during pre-season when everyone is back.
He said: “We’ve not got a settled starting eleven which possibly is half the problem just now.
“I think when you get a settled eleven you can go and build on it.
“But hopefully over the next couple of weeks we can be by the holidays, injuries and suspensions and have everyone back.
“We just need to look forward to having everybody available again.
“We can’t lose sight of the fact we had a good pre-season when we had the full squad available.
“We’ve got to look at getting everybody back and kicking on from there.”
Defender Gupwell – himself serving a ban –admits they must start tightening up at the back as they made it 16 conceded in four games.
He said: “I don’t think Kello are a team that should be beating us 4-1. I think it flatters them in the overall performance.
“But at the same time we seem to be really easy to score against just now.
“We need to give ourselves a chance in games because we can’t be expecting to score five, six or seven to get three points.
“There are a lot of games to be played and the boys are going to have to keep their heads up and keep fighting for a place in the team.”
After making the 40-mile journey to Dumfries and Galloway, Kello took the lead just six minutes in through Lee McGinley.
But Newmains quickly battled back when Dominic Cherrie headed home an inswinging corner.
Two quickfire strikes though meant Rovers took a two-goal advantage into the interval.
First TJ Shirkie curled in a free-kick then Mark Armour added a third on the brink of half-time.
Armour got his second and Kello’s fourth with a thundering finish in the closing stages.
Gupwell added: “It’s a long way to come to go back up the road after a disappointing performance, especially in the first half
“It’s a hard one to take. Right now it’s killing us with the times of the goals we’re conceding.
“It seems just now the game is done by the time we get in at half-time. We’re conceding at the wrong times.
“Conceding on the brink of half-time was a sore one – last week it was the last kick of the ball then within five minutes of re-starting.
“In this game it was the last kick of the ball again and it put them 3-1 ahead. If we’d gone in 2-1 down we could have reorganised and got back out with only one goal in it.”
Newmains return to action at Victoria Park tomorrow (Saturday) when Port Glasgow visit Victoria Park. Kick-off is 2pm with tickets £5 for adults, £2.50 for OAPs and FREE entry for under-16s.
