League is priority for Gibson

ANNAN Athletic boss Wullie Gibson wants the positive momentum to continue tomorrow afternoon against Edinburgh City as his side aim to make it three games undefeated in League Two.

Last Saturday at Forthbank, the Black and Golds kept their first clean sheet of the season in a 0-0 draw with Stirling Albion.

And despite losing 1-0 away to League One Kelty Hearts in the Challenge Cup on Tuesday night, Gibson was impressed with large spells of the performance.

Innes Murray’s 72nd minute penalty was the difference between the two teams, while Keith Watson’s sending off two minutes later made it difficult for the Black and Golds to find a way back into the game.

Gibson said: “The result didn’t go our way, but there were so many positives in the 90 minutes.

“I felt that we probably controlled most of the game in the first half and that we were the better team.

“The game rides on the penalty decision. I think it’s soft. I think Myles Gaffney later on in the half has a similar one where the defender puts his hands on him and he goes down.

“But we’ve probably got to defend the situation better. The referee gives the penalty, they score and they get their tails up. Then we’ve not really got enough time to re-group and we get a man sent off.

“Keith’s not a nasty player. He goes in and he’s probably overrun the ball. He goes along the ground, he doesn’t go high, I think he does probably win the ball first but his momentum takes him straight into the player as well.

“I’ve wished the player well, he’s on crutches. Hopefully it’s not as bad as it looks.”

Tomorrow afternoon Athletic complete an away triple-header against Edinburgh City.

The manager insists the league is where results matter the most.

Gibson added: “The cup competition is great financially for the club, in terms of extra revenue, but we’ve got to prioritise the league.

“(On Tuesday) we didn’t take any chances with Paul Smith who was feeling his hamstring from Saturday. Tam (Muir) was feeling his foot.

“Josh Gilmour, Jack Allan and Duncan Barlow were playing with Kilmarnock B as part of the loan co-operation.

“It did leave us a bit short, Steven Bell (the assistant manager) has had to come on the bench for a number.

“We are down to the bare bones, but we’ll have Paul and Tam back for the weekend and the Killie boys will also re-join us.

“If you look at our start to the league, we’ve got four points from two tough games.

“We managed to win against Elgin and we kept a clean sheet on Saturday (against Stirling). Tonight (against Kelty) we’ve put in a good performance.

“We will look to go into Saturday in a positive frame of mind and try and get a good result.”