Scottish skip Ewan MacDonald insists his rink must start better after losing their second successive match at the World Men’s Curling Championships in Beijing.
Three-time world champion MacDonald opened up his rink’s campaign with an 8-4 defeat to Sweden and was 6-2 behind after six ends against hosts China second time out.
They battled back to make it 8-8 in the tenth and force an extra end but China’s Rui Liu knocked out MacDonald’s last stone to score three for an 11-8 win.
And MacDonald, who won world gold in 1999, 2006 and 2009, admits Scotland simply cannot afford to be so far behind so early on in Beijing.
“The bad end in the sixth threw us and got us behind it a wee bit. We played really well in the second half and came back really strong,” he said.
“We were a bit unlucky in the last; I don’t know how my first stone didn’t curl. We battled well and showed a lot of good character.
“We came back strong to get back to all-square but we just couldn’t finish it. We’re just getting behind a wee bit and it’s making it an uphill struggle.
“You’ve got to stay in the tournament, that’s the bottom line. We’ve just got to keep working hard.”
© Sportsbeat 2014