Irvine Meadow co-manager Colin Spence says their penalty miss changed the game, as they lost 2-1 to Rossvale at the weekend.

Despite the negative end result the hosts started brightly at Meadow Park and took the lead late on in the first half, through Michael Wardrope’s curling effort.

In the second half, they had a chance to double that lead when Kyle Faulds was brought down in the box.

However, Mark McLennan skied the resulting spot kick over the bar before Brad Rodden equalised for the away side.

Rossvale then got a penalty of their own which Mikey McWilliams scored to seal the three points.

Speaking to the Times, Spence said: “I thought in the first half in particular we were excellent all over the park...my only complaint at half time was that it was only one nil.

“The missed penalty seemed to have a bit of a negative effect on us and I do not know if it gave Rossvale a bit of a lift.

“Goals change games and they got two big goals in the second half but it is very difficult of me to be critical of the team because I thought the performance on the whole was strong.”