Lie have been on the receiving end of four league defeats on the bounce heading into this weekend’s fixture with league leaders Kirkintillioch Rob Roy at Dunterlie.

Downs branded last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Glenafton as ‘unacceptable’, and insists the players and coaching staff are working hard behind the scenes to ensure an upturn in results.

He told Barrhead Sport: “What happened on Saturday cannot go on.

“Obviously it is not acceptable, and the manner of the performance in the second half was not good enough.

“I need to shoulder the blame as manager, but we need to improve across the board. I don’t think we have been playing too poorly and we are certainly not panicking but we need to all work hard to make sure the results get better.

“We face the league leaders on Saturday and if we win that then we are only five points off of top spot. The league is really tight and we are not far away.

“I don’t want to be involved in relegation battles as Arthurlie manager.” A second-half collapse against Glens consigned Lie to defeat to former boss Craig McEwan at the weekend.

Gavin Rushford’s sending off for an alleged stamp on an opposition player increased the number of red cards for Arthurlie this season, and is something Downs is determine to root out.

He added: “I’m not going to sit here and defend the undefendable.

“We have all had a massive chat and it is certainly not something that I am encouraging.

“Passions can run high but I am unable to defend the red card at the weekend and also against Auchinleck Talbot.

“Discipline has been an issue since I came in last season, and it is something we need to sort out.

“Getting a needless red card is an easy way out, you aren’t going to win games with 10 men every week, and we have all spoken about it.” Kick-off at Dunterlie is 2pm.