IRVINE Meadow's long-awaited return to Meadow Park ended in a disappointing 4-3 defeat to Shotts Bon Accord in the South Challenge Cup third round on Saturday.
The homecoming, after a series of away fixtures, was marred by a lacklustre performance and contentious refereeing decisions.
The hosts, who had been 3-1 down, pulled themselves level before losing a deciding goal from the visitors' Marc McKenzie to exit a second competition in the space of a week.
Meadow's Danny Wilson was sent off after receiving a second yellow for what the referee deemed a dive in the box.
That decision, along with several other calls, drew criticism from Meadow's manager, Jamie McKim.
He told the club's media team: "It would be easy for me to stand here and say 'we've been beaten again, the referee was shocking', which I'm not saying he wasn't, but it's too easy to say that.
"I expect more from the players. We expect more from the performance."
Despite his criticism of the referee's performance, McKim was clear that his side needed to take responsibility for their own showing.
He said: "Yes, he was poor, yes, he made loads of bad decisions, but we need to be better.
"I expect us to be much, much better than that.
"It's not a case of going away and looking at officials, it's a case of going away and looking at ourselves."
Meadow now face two away ties, against Kirriemuir Thistle this Saturday in the Scottish Communities Cup and then Ardrossan Winton Rovers on October 24 in the WoSFL Premier Division.
The recent defeat follows a series of disappointing results for Meadow.
They were also knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Bo'ness United after a 3-2 defeat.
A refereeing error was blamed for that loss, but McKim admitted his team missed an opportunity to progress during extra time.
Looking ahead, he is hoping for a quick recovery from his side.
However, he emphasised the importance of consistent performance across all competitions.
He said: "The boys can look at this tournament and other ones and think it's maybe not as important, because at the start of the season we were talking about the senior Scottish Cup, junior Scottish Cup, the league, but every week here you need to be on it.
"They're all competing against each other for places in the team, so that level of performance is just not going to wash.
"Getting beat at home after being away for so long, for me, it’s just not good enough.
"Last week [against Bo'ness] was very sore, but that [losing to Shotts] has certainly not helped."
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