Player/coach Stewart's view on cup exit

We went into yesterday’s match with the bare bones of a squad but the boys put up a valiant effort on our trip to Lochore Welfare. We’ve unfortunately lost a few to injuries early in the season and through the week so it wasn’t the start to a Saturday we were hoping for.

Nevertheless, the boys battled the full 90 minutes and each one of them deserves massive praise; we really couldn’t have asked any more of them.

We started the first half a bit slow as we were workout out their shape and patterns but as the half wore on we grew into it and caused them a lot of problems. Again, Robbie Renwick was a constant menace with his direct attacking wing play. We were unlucky not to take the lead only for Welfare to go up the other end with a long ball and a good finish to take the lead into the break.

The second half started much the same as the first and it was a massive blow when Robbie had to be replaced with a knee injury. Still we created chances and dealt with their attacking players really well with both Ben Brown and Nathan McDonald excellent in the centre of defence. Ross Lamb and Scott Latto were both linking up well with the front players too and we had a possible shout of a penalty with Grant Wilson strolling past a few defenders and seemed to be taken down but it didn’t go our way. We continued to create plenty of chances but the Lochore back line proved to be a solid unit. We unfortunately end up giving a penalty away deep into injury time which was tucked away and ended the contest.

We move onto next Saturday, hopefully with a few of the boys free from injury and confident that the same effort and energy will see results come.