Joe Pryce admits his Rutherglen Glencairn side were lacking a spark and got what they deserved, as they lost 1-0 at home to Maybole on Saturday.

The slender defeat, courtesy of a Jake Graham strike in 21 minutes, dropped Glens four places down to sixth in the West of Scotland First Division as a result, although just two points separate first from sixth in an extremely tight league table.

Scott Jarvie was denied by a fine save from Maybole’s Scott Johnstone, before Jack McIlveen struck the bar with a free-kick.

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Graham opened the scoring, and the visitors could have doubled their lead, with Scott Paterson latching onto a short passback but firing wide, before Chris White made a good save from Chris Campbell.

Glencairn’s Allan Woodhouse sent a shot inches wide, as the sides turned at the interval.

While Glencairn tried to get back level in the second half, they didn’t trouble Johnstone enough in the Maybole goal.

Co-boss Pryce said: “In terms of our performance, we got what we deserved, because we didn’t deserve to win the game.

“For the first 20 minutes we seemed to be at it, on top, without any real control, but had hit the post and had a couple of near things.

“But then Maybole scored; I think it was only the second time they had been up the park, and then for five minutes we lost our way.

“We then got back into the game, but for having all the territory, dominating the ball, we never worked the Maybole goalkeeper or defence enough. That was the frustrating part for us, that the performance level wasn’t there.

“We lacked a lot of creativity, we lacked a bit of a spark.”

Pryce added: “Maybole fought their corner, defended with their lives, and probably in the end they deserved the three points.

“We had hit a bit of form the week before, but it’s finding that level of consistency in our game.

“If we’re going to be up one week and down the next, we’re not going to be a success and we’re not going to achieve the goals that we set out to achieve. We know there’s more in the players.

“That was our 19th league game, and the first time we’ve failed to score in a league match this season. You don’t want to be too hard on the players, because they’ve done so well for us, but they and we need to find that level of consistency if we’re going to be a success this season.”