Irvine Meadow co-manager Colin Spence praised his side for adapting to the loss of Michael Wardrope to beat Blantyre Victoria 2-1 at the weekend.

Meadow were rocked last week by the shock departure of their top scorer to rivals Auchinleck Talbot.

The midfielder was reported to have been the subject of a failed bid from the West of Scotland Football League Premier Division league leaders earlier in the month.

However, they eventually got their man last week as he switched Meadow Park for Beechwood.

Medda had no time to mope about the loss of the ex-Kilwinning Rangers man as they quickly had to refocus on league duty.

They were keen to turn their form around after an inconsistent run in recent weeks when they visited the KG Stadium on Saturday.

The away side quickly put their 1-0 loss to Kilbirnie Ladeside a fortnight ago behind them to take an early lead.

Connor Boyd headed in at the back post to put Medda one goal to the good.

They then quickly doubled their advantage just two minutes later, with Sam McCloy volleying into the top right hand corner to put them 2-0 up going into the break.

In the second half, the hosts grabbed a late goal back via Scott Gibson’s free kick.

But it was too little too late as Meadow stood resolute to get back to winning ways.

Speaking to the Times, Spence said:”A lot of time we were playing to Michael’s strengths.

“We were setting him up and trying to get the best out of a talented player.

“But at the weekend we set up in a different way, Kyle Faulds and Neil Slooves were absolutely tremendous in the middle of the park.

“So, we probably did not miss Michael as much because we set up in a different way.

“You have got to be adaptable and we cannot be playing in the one way all the time as well.

“So, I thought the players adapted really well to the way we set up and we looked comfortable.

“We played as a real team unit and did not carry anyone instead of relying on any individuals.”