St Cuthbert Wanderers boss Josh Gardner admits double figures were in his mind as his side were being thumped by Linlithgow Rose.
On the weekend when both Liverpool and Celtic rattled nine goals past their opponents, Saints were on the receiving end of a 9-0 scoreline as their Scottish Cup dream ended at the preliminary stage.
And Gardner said: “I’d be lying if I said it (conceding 10) didn’t come into my head, especially after 26 minutes when we were 4-0 down.
“I said to one of my coaches if we could just get in at 4-0 we could try to regroup a wee bit, which is a mad statement in itself when you think about it.
“Just as I said that Mark Stowe, who seemed to score every time he touched the ball, sailed in a free-kick from about 25 yards so that was that out the window!
“It was damage limitation. When we got in at half-time it was about showing a bit of character. In fairness in the second half we were better, we weren’t getting cut open as much and we had a few shots at goal as well.
“Sometimes football takes you to school on Saturday and that’s what happened. We need to learn from that otherwise it was just a complete waste of time. That’s not just the players, it’s everyone, and we need to be better equipped if we come up against a test like that again.”
Connor McMullen opened the scoring for the home side before Mark Stowe struck a hat-trick to put Rose 4-0 up after just a quarter of the match.
Stowe made it 5-0 with a great free-kick before half-time and he continued in that vein early in the second half, taking his personal tally to five.
An own goal heaped more misery on Saints before Sandy Cunningham made it eight, Stowe the obvious man to round off the scoring.
Gardner admitted: “We always knew it was going to be tough. They’ve started really well - they narrowly missed out on winning the league last year and have upped the ante this year.
“You can say we should have done things a lot better and we should have. A few things went wrong for us but, if we’re being totally honest with ourselves, they were just far superior.
“I think it’s a big wake up call to our lads that if they’ve any aspirations to play at that level or try to acclimatise to that level we’ve a bit of work to do.
“I think a few people in their career have suffered those heavy defeats. It’s got to hurt you and you’ve got to feel that pain but also then put it into a positive way and benchmark yourself against the guys you’ve just played. Sometimes football can work in mysterious ways and things like that can galvanise your season and you go from strength to strength.
“It can go the other way and seriously affect the confidence but from what I’ve seen so far I think it will have a positive effect, which sounds strange after getting beaten 9-0.”
Saints are due to host Mid Annandale this weekend, the clash at St Mary’s Park due to take place tomorrow night rather than Saturday.
Gardner added “I’m quite pleased we’ve got a game so quickly to get over that heavy loss.
“It’s all about the reaction and character shown.
“It should be a good game and probably a tight game. They’re a decent side but we’re at a stage where we need to focus on ourselves as getting our levels up is far more important than focusing on the opposition. We need to worry about getting our own levels up first.
“Hopefully we can get a good crowd in as it’s a Friday night so it’s a good occasion for the players to bounce back.”
