Paul Burns issued a rallying cry to his players after a disappointing 4-0 defeat at the hands of Kilbirnie Ladeside on Saturday.

Since taking over from Peter Leonard towards the end of last year, Burns has yet to win a game in charge of the Nock and defeat to Kilbirnie on Saturday might well have been the last straw for the player manager as he looks to spark that all important change in the dressing room to see them fire back up the table.

Albeit being thrown in at the deep end, Burns won’t have been expecting such a barren run of results to kick ofF his tenure as Cumnock manager, however he is keen to show he and his team have the grit and fight to show that they can reverse this run of results and stay in the division.

“Today the second half was just an acceptance and it’s not on. it won’t be tolerated. We had a long chat with the boys in the dressing room and they know what’s expected from them going forward.

“We will change the run of results, but it’s up to us and hopefully we’ll be there at the end of the season. I probably will have to play now going forward. We will evaluate differently each week but I do see myself having to go in there and play.

“Hopefully it makes a difference me being in there.

“With my experience hopefully I can have an impact, like I said it’s a collective thing, we’re all coaches we’re all in it together the boys know themselves that we’ve let ourselves down and we’re all learning so we’re all to blame today.

“We know the standard required and what’s needed because we’ve set that ourselves, so we know what’s required, we know what we need to do to get ourselves out of this.

“I definitely see myself and the two coaches, and Billy who’s in with us as the right people in charge and I believe that we can definitely keep the club in the division.

“It’s not enjoyable losing games, players and managers alike, and you never want to lose, it’s definitely something I don’t want to keep doing, and it’s up to us to break the mould and to get out of it most importantly it’s a learning curve and I’m seeing things differently each week but we most definitely need to improve.”