Tommy Montgomery couldn’t hide his frustration as he watched his Yoker side suffer a heavy defeat for the second week running.

A week after their 5-2 loss to Shotts Bon Accord, the Whe Ho were on the end of another one-sided scoreline as they welcomed league leaders Gartcairn to McKenna Park on Saturday.

Yoker are now running out matches in their bid to the beat the drop in the West Region League One and Montgomery blamed ridiculous defending for the 6-1 Gartcairn loss.

Runaway league leaders Cairn knew a win would guarantee their promotion but they didn’t have it all their own way in a fairly even first 45 with Yoker dominating for spells as they went in just one behind at the break.

Read more: Individual errors to blame as Yoker fall to high-flying Shotts

That organised display fell apart in the second-half, however, as sloppy individual defensive errors cost them dearly with the North Lanarkshire club running away with it in the end.

“The overriding emotion right now is sheer frustration,” said Montgomery. “Granted Gartcairn are a good side and they were well up for it as a win would see them promoted. We knew that from the off but I believe most observers would say we were the better side in the first-half.

“We played well and dominated the midfield through Jamie Waddell and Greig Maitland.

Montgomery continued: “We do lose a goal from a simple corner with their centre-half out-muscling ours but the thing is, we were still right in the game at the break.

“We’ve been drilling into them all week that we need to cut down the mistakes to give ourselves chances in these matches. They had scored 92 goals so far this season before Saturday so we knew they had a potent strike-force and we had to cut out the errors.

“Two minutes into the second-half, however, one of our full-backs plays a ball right across the 18-yard box. If there was a defending for dummies guide, the one thing you would see is a warning not to play the ball across your own box. Gartcairn’s winger is the quickest player I’ve ever seen in junior football and nips in to make it 2-0.

Read more: Taking chances made a real difference, says Tommy Montgomery

“We still dig in even at 3-0 which pleased me. The boys didn’t give up against the league leaders with Waddell getting one back before more crazy decision making cost us dearly in the end as we go on to concede more.

“It’s a sore one to take having played so well in the first-half and having showed a great attitude throughout.”

Sitting five points from safety behind Shettleston and with just four matches remaining, Whe Ho’s time does look to be running out.

However, Montgomery insists everyone at the club believes they can pull off a great escape.

He added: “We absolutely still believe we can win our last four matches, put 12 points on the board and put pressure on Shettleston to win their matches in hand.”