Duncan Sinclair has challenged his side to show more spirit and character after they were well beaten by league leaders Rutherglen Glencairn. 

Sinclair has demanded more from his players after enduring an inconsistent start to life as Arthurlie manager with two wins and two defeats from his four league matches in charge.

He watched as his side stuttered to a 2-0 loss against the league leaders and confessed the scoreline flattered the Lie.

The Dunterlie Park side were looking to put back-to-back wins together for the first time this season after last week’s 5-1 thrashing of Girvan, but they came undone against an unbeaten Rutherglen side.

Glencairn signalled their intent right from the off, almost opening the scoring after just 55 seconds.

Lie’s first attempt on goal was a somewhat ambitious effort eight minutes in as Hal Bohme cut in from the left and fired an angled shot well over.

Glens never looked in any real danger, though, and deservedly took the lead 10 minutes before the interval thanks to former Arthurlie man Gary Smith.

The home side were cruising after the restart and doubled their advantage with Ryan McArdle beating the offside trap to cut it back for Smith who had the simplest of finishes for his and his side’s second. 

Sinclair’s men failed to threaten for the remainder of the second half as they fell to their second defeat of the season.

And the manager insists his players must now show they are up for the fight. 

He said: “Rutherglen are a very good team - they’re league leaders for a reason. To be honest, 2-0 flattered us. That was a big learning curve for us. If we want to be up at the top end of the table then we need to do better.

“We didn’t play anywhere near our potential, but that was also due to a very good Glencairn team who didn’t allow us to play.

“We were fortunate to only go in one down. We wanted a bit more from our players but Glencairn came out and ran over us in the second half. We really struggled to get into it. That was the disappointing thing, we didn’t really battle. We have got spirit and character in this team, we’ve just got to show it.”

Next up for Lie is a tough derby against Neilston and Sinclair has demanded that his players show up from the first whistle. 

He added: “It’s a big derby game on Saturday so if you can’t get up for that then you shouldn’t be playing football if I’m being honest. The team talk writes itself for Saturday.”