Albion Rovers manager Sandy Clark described the 1-1 draw with Spartans as a ‘rubbish’ game of football and even apologised to the travelling fans for the spectacle.
Clark was appalled by the lack of quality on show in the pyramid play-off final first leg at Ainslie Park.
The visitors went ahead in a scrappy first half through Luke Graham but the Lowland League champions levelled through an Ayrton Sonkur own goal after the break.
Clark said: “I thought it was an absolutely rubbish game of football, really poor.
“The second half was absolutely terrible and I apologise to all the Albion Rovers fans, it just wasn’t a good game.
“Maybe it was to do with what’s at stake but you have to learn how to handle situations like that and for me it wasn’t a good spectacle.
“You want to play well and win games, I know there is a bit of pressure but we have to do better than that.
“I think the ball is away to hospital with a sore head, it was never on the ground.”
After a poor start, the match finally livened up when Rovers went ahead in the 39th minute.
Charlie Reilly’s corner to the back post was headed in by Graham.
Spartans upped the tempo in the second half and came close to equalising just minutes into the half when Harvey Swann’s deflected effort looped just over the bar.
Rovers midfielder Kyle Fleming then shot straight at Spartans goalkeeper Blair Carswell after doing well to create space at the end of the box.
But the Edinburgh club brought the game level in the 65th minute with a huge slice of fortune.
Blair Henderson’s low effort was cleared off the line by Jamie Leslie but the ball bounced off Rovers defender Sonkur and rolled into the net.
Spartans boss Dougie Samuel said: “It was probably what we expected in terms of it being a tight, tense affair.
“I thought up until the first goal we edged it but maybe lacked some quality in our final ball.
“If you said at halftime it would finish 1-1 we probably would have taken that because we wanted to make sure the tie was alive for next week and it is.
“I knew it would be a 50/50 game and my opinion hasn’t changed after this, it’s just the same.
"It comes down to a 90 minute shoot out.”
