East Kilbride midfielder Ronan Hughes reckons the 4-0 scoreline at the hands of his old side Hamilton Accies was a shade harsh.
But he admits the clinical edge of Accies striker Andy Ryan was just too much for the Lowland League side to handle.
Hughes experienced an unhappy return to Accies as the New Douglas Park academy graduate watched his ex-team-mate wreck Kilby's dreams of a place in the fourth round with a deadly hat-trick, which was rounded off with a sublime 30-yard lob over Kilby keeper Curtis Lyle.
Sixteen-year-old Ryan One was also on target as he bagged his first goal for the club, but Hughes felt the final results didn't tell the whole story.
Kilby had big chances early on with Cami Elliott going close inside the opening sixty seconds.
And Hughes said: "I don't think we deserved to get beat 4-0 but when you are coming up the leagues, and with the quality Hamilton have got, teams are clinical in all areas.
"That start we had was good but that was probably the difference - when Hamilton got their chances, they took them with Chucky [Ryan].
"When we got ours, we needed to be a clinical and we weren't.
"I thought for the first 20 minutes and even for the first hour before it went 2-0, we were good, in the game, passed the ball well and caused them problems.
"If we'd taken our chances it would have been a different game.
"They probably would have got a bit nervy and things like that, but you can't give a player like Chucky chances like that.
"I saw him do stuff like that with both feet in training [when he was at Accies] so I wasn't shocked when his last goal went in.
"That's something that he can do."
EK's hopes of a glamour fourth round tie have been killed off for another year, but their focus returns to Lowland League duty and their bid to reach teh SPFL themselves.
Hughes added: "This is something we can learn from and take into our league campaign.
"If we can keep playing at that intensity we did against Hamilton in our league games that would really help us."
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