Gordonians made a poor start to life in National League 2, losing 18-10 at Countesswells to Border side Peebles.
Head coach Ryan Morrice said: “It’s not as if they were any better than us, but were certainly more streetwise.
“We missed a number of good opportunities.
“But our biggest problem was in not being able to manage the game.
“We worked hard, and there were some fine individual performances out there, but there’s a lot to work on in training next week, but we’ll get there.”
Graeme Crawford was one of the standouts for the home side. The full back was immense in defence, while taking every opportunity to set up attacks against the highly organised Borderers.
Despite their overall superiority, the Gytes side were only able to turn around at half-time 6-5 up relying on two penalties to keep them in front.
Crawford scored the home try when he finished off a fine move by his back division, but was unable to make the conversion.
The visitors became a little more adventurous in the second half, managing to score an unconverted try to which they added another penalty, while Gordonians kept themselves in the game when flanker Matt Johnston, pick of the home pack, crashed over for an unconverted touchdown.
The game finished with Peebles desperately defending their lead and Gordonians coming up one point short of a losing bonus point.