Brian Reid admits Albion Rovers blew a big chance of Scottish Cup progression by missing a last-gasp penalty, before University of Stirling ran out 1-0 winners at Cliftonhill.
And the Rovers gaffer has demanded a reaction when they visit Forfar in League Two on Saturday.
With the third-round tie poised at 0-0, Charlie Reilly sent an 88th-minute penalty over the bar, and Euan McGill sent the Lowland League side into the fourth round for the first time ever with a goal 11 minutes into extra-time.
That ended a six-game unbeaten run for Rovers, and Reid reckons they just weren’t at the races.
“We’re very disappointed,” said Reid. “It’s a game where we didn’t play as well as we can, and credit to Stirling, they made it difficult for us on a heavy pitch.
“But we didn’t create as much as we could didn’t play as well as we could, which was a disappointment, because that was on the back of a six-game unbeaten run.
“To turn up and not really play the way we can is disappointing.
“We missed a penalty in the 90th minute, which could have seen us through, and we’d have been delighted with that.
“It’s hard to be critical, because Charlie has scored a lot of goals this season, he’s young, and everybody misses penalties.
“But it’s one of those where if we had scored there that was it done, through, and we didn’t.
“We didn’t really recover from that, and then we lost a poor goal from our perspective.
“It didn’t look as if anybody was going to score, though my goalkeeper has made a few good saves”
Reid added: “No disrespect, but on our day we should be beating them, especially at home and on our run of form, and especially with a penalty in the 90th minute.
“Everybody’s disappointed, it’s a young squad and it’s hard to be too critical.
“The boys aren’t going out there and trying to lose, but we know we let ourselves down.”
Reid hopes his side bounce back when they face League Two’s basement side, knowing a win could potentially take them up two places to fifth.
He said: “We now just need to pick ourselves up and look forward to a tough league game.
“I’ve always said the league is our bread and butter, and the cup is a bonus for us, but we wanted a cup run for the financial aspect as well, so everybody at the club is disappointed
“We want a reaction at Forfar.”
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