Rutherglen Glencairn boss Willie Harvey wasn’t happy with his side – despite their 2-1 Scottish Junior Cup quarter-final win at Larkhall Thistle.
But he won’t fault them after avoiding a potential banana skin tie at the West of Scotland Third Division side.
A double from Jack McIlveen either side of a Ryan Carlin strike sent Glens into today's semi-final draw for the first time since 2013, where they will meet either Dundee East Craigie, Glenafton or Cumnock.
Harvey says his side showed resilience to get through a difficult tie, but knows they could have played better.
He said: “I wasn’t happy with the performance at all. They didn’t live up to our expectation. In saying that, they got the job done.
“At the end of the day it’s a cup tie, and cup tie are all about results, if it comes down to that.
“We avoided a banana skin and I’ve got to applaud Larkhall – they’re a terrific young team, they played really well, worked really hard and caused us an awful lot of problems.
“They knocked us off our stride right away, brought the game to us and never gave us the chance to settle.
“But we did show resilience; it’s not as if we capitulated. We hunkered down, dug in the trenches and fought our case.”
Harvey added: “Larkhall put Benburb out 3-1 earlier in the cup, so it wasn’t beyond them to put us out.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game, we had information on them and found out about their dangerous players.
“They lived up to what we expected – but we didn’t, other than getting the result.
“But I’m not going to fault my players – sometimes that’s what happens in cup ties.
“The hardest game to win is the game you’re expected to win.
“It’s not all the time you go into a Scottish Junior Cup quarter-final and you go in as the favourite.
“We would have been probably the underdog normally, but this time round we were the favourites and I think it weighed quite heavily on us.”
A positive Harvey also took from their cup clash at Larkhall was under-21 player Dominic McLaughlin stepping up to take the captain’s role, where he excelled.
Glens are back on league business this Saturday when they travel to bottom of the table Whitletts Victoria in the West of Scotland League First Division.
Promotion-chasing Glens are seventh in the table but just six points off the top three and while Glens were idle in the league, Harvey says results went their way.
He added: “Teams above us lost points, so they didn’t take any extra points away from us in games on us, so it meant we’ve kept in touch with them.
“There are 14 games left to go in the league and anything can happen.”
Kick-off at Dam Park is scheduled for 2pm.
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