Irons fumes at defeat

Head Coach Davie Irons could not hide his disappointment after the 4-0 defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Saturday.

The visitors plunged Gretna deeper into relegation trouble as they ran out convincing winners in the battle of the bottom-two at Fir Park.

Goals from Dennis Wyness, Don Cowie, Barry Wilson and Rod McBain left the Black and Whites without a win in five games and Irons has called on his players to rise to the challenge that now faces them.

“I’m very upset with the way they have performed,” he said.

“We have let ourselves down big style. In a game where we needed to take something, we have ended up with a heavy defeat.”

“We knew it was going to be tough this season and it is a challenge that we are not going to shirk away from.”

“But do they want it? Can they handle it? Are they up for the challenge? I am, Derek is, Brooks is, are you as players up for it?”

“That’s what I have left them to think about. There is nowhere to hide and you can’t walk away from it. They have to face up to the challenge that lies ahead of us now.”

“There has to be eleven players giving us everything every week, not eight, not nine or even ten because we’re not good enough.”

“Hard working teams with that level of effort and commitment can achieve things - that’s something we have to realise.”

Gretna were dealt a huge blow prior to kick-off with the news that defender Chris Innes was ruled out through injury and their fortunes didn’t improve as the game got underway.

Davie Cowan conceded a penalty for a push on Ross Tokely in the second minute and Dennis Wyness took full advantage to open the scoring.

“I got a call at ten in the morning to hear Chris had ripped a toe nail off at home and can’t walk,” he said.

“We were already without Martin Canning, Aurélien Collin and Craig Barr, so that made it more difficult for us before we kicked a ball.”

“Then to lose a goal in the first couple of minutes was suicidal. I can’t understand why players commit to challenges like that and it gave us a mountain to climb.”

“We’ve had two chances against teams around us in the last two weeks and we’ve blown them both. We have to respond next week against Falkirk and get points on the board.”