Ten-man Rutherglen Glencairn went spinning out of the West of Scotland Cup at the third round stage, as boss Willie Harvey was left to rue missed opportunities for his side in their defeat to Craigmark.
The Glens boss had defender Anthony Maguire ordered off and later saw red himself for comments made to the referee in the five-goal thriller.
Harry Mitchell put Glencairn in front, but Liam Caddis scored a penalty to level for a handball, before Jack McIlveen restored the hosts’ lead.
Jordan Ryan headed Craigmark level, Maguire was shown a second yellow, and Caddis netted another penalty to send them through to the fourth round.
Harvey said: “It was a game we should have won – unfortunately we had chances that we should have scored, but didn’t take.
“They got two penalties against us, the first one with Dom McLaughlin in the first half I totally refute. It shouldn’t have been given.
“The second one with Anton McDowall was a stonewaller – there’s no arguing with it. It was a silly penalty to give away, there was no reason to, and that was disappointing.
“We made mistakes at the back, and switched off at a free-kick as well, which we have been guilty of.
“We turned our back on it, it was taken quickly, and we’re not set, so that’s something we need to talk about.
“Maguire’s red card didn’t help. Going down to 10 men gives them a lift right away, and Ants is one of our big players. We had to change the defence about, then we went behind, and it’s a cup tie, so there’s no use in sitting back. We went 3-3-3 and tried to chase it.
“I wasn’t as angry as I was last week, because the performance was a wee bit better, but it was disappointing.”
Attention returns to league business this weekend and Harvey insists his side are still in the West of Scotland League First Division promotion hunt.
Glens have been involved in cup action to the extent that they’ve only played 17 league games, while others around them have clocked up 19, 20, or 23.
As they head into a home double-header against Bonnyton Thistle on Saturday and Johnstone Burgh next Wednesday, Harvey is looking to put a sequence of results together.
He said: “We’ll keep plugging away.
“We’re still in there, because we’ve got the teams above us still to play – if we hadn’t, then we would have been out of the hunt.
"We still have Kilbirnie Ladeside twice, St Cadoc's, Drumchapel, Johnstone Burgh and Benburb still to play.
"We can inflict some damage on the ones above us, see were it takes us. Our intention is to get a run in the league again and try ang get ourselves in amongst it.
"We’re hanging in there by the skin of our teeth, but we’ll fight all the way until it’s out of our hands.”
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