DEJECTED Irvine Meadow boss Brian McGinty and skipper Ben Carson are demanding a reaction from the players following Saturday's shock home league defeat.

And McGinty says his team, who suffered their fourth loss out of eight in the Super League First Division, must get out of the drop zone before thinking about promotion.

The 1-0 loss to Kello Rovers left them in fourth bottom spot.

Plain-speaking McGinty, whose team stunned Kilwinning Rangers in the West of Scotland Cup a week earlier, said: "It was a good goal for Kello but a terrible one from our point of view, they hit us on the break. But we have to better and the quality has to be better. The ball was baubling about in the box and they need to be ruthless if that's what it takes to get the ball in the net.

"Ryan Begley won a header right across the box in the last five minutes when we were down 1-0 and four boys were standing watching instead of trying to put the ball in the net. It wasn't good enough. It's easy to go to Kilwinning and play as we did last week although I couldn't fault the players' desires. We made changes but were not good enough and had chances but didn't take them.

He cautioned: "Too many people are talking about promotion but we need to start looking at the bottom of the league and try to win some games. It's not about promotion but making sure we stay in the league. We are a million miles away from promotion. This is a reality check."

Medda are in Scottish Cup action at Dyce on Saturday and McGinty added: "We look forward to the tie and will hopefully be better then Dyce on the day."

Carson commented: "We had plenty of chances to win but it was one of these days and we are gutted as player for player, we are 10 times better than Kello and should not be getting beaten. They sat in and did well but the result is hard to take. We lacked a bit of quality in the final third it wasn't down to a lack of effort. Their goal was a cross into the box and I don't think the boy even touched it.

"Kello deserve their win as they kept a clean sheet, although we battered the post and the bar, had a shot cleared of the line and won 15 to 20 corners."

Added the midfielder: "We look forward to a Scottish Cup away day. We had hoped to go with a win but will work hard in training and see what happens. We look forward to it and will hopefully go through."