AFC Women manager Scott Booth shared his thoughts at full-time after his side exited the Scottish Cup following a 2-1 loss at home to Montrose.
“I’m stunned again. We’ve lost with a late winner from the opposition in a game that I felt we were pretty much in control of. I don’t think Montrose offered much, I don’t think they had many efforts.
“I thought we had chances in the first half that we could have taken to put the game to bed. We’ve spoken a lot about individual errors for a large part of this season and again today I feel we’ve individually made mistakes that have really cost us.
“The problem is teams only need one or two chances against us and it’s leading to goals. It’s hugely frustrating.
“We had the opportunity with the first goal to clear it. We try to dribble outside our own penalty box and that’s an individual error. I think Anna will look back at both goals and think she could have done better.
“For the free kick, the positioning was just a little bit too far to one side and it gave Kayla the opportunity to find that corner. Then with the second goal, we’ve got four or five opportunities to clear the ball. It’s late in the game and those things need to be done properly.
“We then suddenly get a spark again afterwards, but it’s not enough. It’s too little, too late.
“There’s a definite feeling in these tight games, and they all are tight, that teams are able to win out because they don’t make individual errors that we do. But it’s also about togetherness and fighting harder for absolutely everything.
“For me today there was no doubt that when we played football we were the better team, but Montrose always bring that togetherness that they need to get wins, like they did today.
“I’m disappointed that we’re not showing that togetherness on the pitch. Not fighting for each other, not backing each other, not giving each other the confidence to go again. That’s lacking and we’ve spoken about that.
“We’ll talk about things this week and sit down together as a group. We did that a bit there and it was good that players felt they could give their perspective on the negativity they’re feeling and why they’re feeling it, particularly in terms of backing each other up and sticking together.
“We need to make sure next week we bring more of that and go into the game with a more positive mindset and try to get rid of any negativity. When we play with a positive attitude, we create chances, we score goals, and we can cause problems for opposition.
“But as soon as we lose a goal, heads go down. I know that’s because we’re not getting results. Results make a massive difference and we just need to get that result.
“Because games are so tight, we won’t do it unless we’re 100% backing each other. We will get it if we do.”
