Cambuslang Rangers co-boss Paul McColl says a 5-1 scoreline doesn’t paint the whole picture of his side’s defeat to Darvel.
The West of Scotland Football League Premier Division side swept aside the Conference B leaders through Jordan Sallan and Allan McKenzie doubles, topped off through an Andy Stirling strike.
Scott Williamson netted for Camby to make it 2-1 but the damage was already done in the South Challenge Cup third round tie.
McColl says that his side competed well against one of the best junior teams in Scotland - who will compete in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup this weekend against high-flying Championship side Arbroath.
Camby’s boss said: “We were playing what was almost a senior side. 5-1 doesn’t reflect the game in my opinion. We lost a couple of silly goals but Darvel are a good team.
“Good teams punish you. We started well and they scored in the first 25 minutes. They got another goal after that which I thought was offside but it was a decent goal.
“Scott scores a good one to get us back into it and we got into half-time with it being quite an even game. But in the second half we concede another daft goal.
“We had a penalty claim turned down, their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves, and then we concede another few goals. We made four or five mistakes in the game.
“A good team like Darvel will punish you. It ended up 5-1 but it probably wasn’t a 5-1 game. They have really good players and we are disappointed with the scoreline. But we played well enough.”
Cambuslang have built a five-point lead at the top of Conference B with two games in hand over Gartcairn and St Cadoc’s in second and third. They haven’t played in the division since November due to postponements.
Winning the title would see them promoted to Darvel’s division, and McColl reckons Saturday’s cup tie was a good chance for the Wee Rangers to see the standard.
He explained: “Darvel are a senior team and they have been beating senior teams. We aren’t too disappointed with the players. We make those mistakes in our league, you might not get punished.
“We had some misses. They have good guys and they have guys coming from senior players to go to Darvel. So we need to aim towards that level.
“We have a lot of young boys in the team. It was a good day and a good experience for them. But that’s it done.”
Cambuslang Rangers are back in cup action this weekend as they travel to Conference C leaders Drumchapel United in the Kilmarnock Pie West of Scotland Football League Cup.
McColl added: “Drumchapel will maybe more of an even game for us. They are top of their conference and they are going well at the moment. So that is going to be another hard game for us.
“It’s one we are looking forward to and then we can look forward to hopefully getting back into league action.”
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