Dalbeattie Star boss Chris Jardine feels his side have put in decent displays against the Old Firm youngsters this season.
Star lost 4-3 to Rangers B on Saturday, having beaten them earlier in the season, while they also suffered two narrow defeats to Celtic.
That’s in contrast to some other Lowland League sides who have been on the receiving end of some heavy defeats from the colt teams.
Jardine said: “We’ve never let ourselves down. Even in the recent game against Celtic we were 4-0 down but there was never four goals in that game and fortunately we got some goals to run them a bit closer.
“We’ve no complaints about how we’ve done against the top sides in the division.
“It’s been a bit of an inconsistent season but I can’t complain about how we’ve done against Rangers and Celtic in the four games we’ve played.”
The Rangers’ youngsters opened the scoring on Saturday through Tony Weston but Star hit back with Russell Currie slamming home the equaliser.
And just before the break the striker put Star in front from the spot after Lewis Todd had been fouled.
Rangers equalised early at the back post through Ross McCausland and went in front through Cole McKinnon who had already hit the bar twice before he finally found the back of the net.
It looked to be game over when McKinnon got his second, although there was an exciting finish when Harry Emerson got one back for Star.
Jardine said: “The boys did really well. We were really struggling in terms of numbers and boys were playing with injuries. I couldn’t have asked for any more of them and we ran Rangers close.
“It took us a wee while to settle and we went a goal behind but we managed to turn it round before half-time and went in 2-1 up.
“The boys were pretty much running on empty. I only had two subs and I had to pick the team around the boys carrying knocks. I felt I couldn’t leave them on the bench as if someone got injured, I’d be bringing on someone with an injury and we could struggle even more.
“We just didn’t have enough at the end to take something from the game. I’m proud of them and a few of them really pushed through when they shouldn’t have played so you can’t ask for any more.”
Star bring their Lowland League campaign to an end this week against Bo'ness United on Saturday after suffering a heavy 7-0 defeat to Stirling University on Wednesday night.
Jardine, who will be taking the reigns at Lochar Thistle next season as work commitments have ruled him out of taking on the Star job full-time, said: “The squad we’ve got for the cup games is depleted a little bit. It’ll not be as bad as the Stranraer game but we’ll have Dom McMahon and Ryan Muir missing so I can’t change too much in the cups.
“The league games won’t affect where we finish but we’re maybe going to have to rest a few as we want to finish with a trophy. It’ll come down to who is fit as we’re struggling and a few boys are running on empty so it’ll be a case of managing people as best we can to see the season out.”
