Dalbeatte Star boss Eddie Warwick claims Saturday’s scoreline wasn’t a true reflection of their tussle with Spartans.
Star lost 4-0 to the Edinburgh side, Blair Henderson bagging a hat-trick and Kevin Waugh also on target.
And while he acknowledge the difference in class between the sides, Warwick felt the scoreline was a bit harsh.
He said: “It wasn’t a 4-0 game and even their manager felt that but after quite an even first half they went in 3-0 up.
“We’ve been under more pressure from other teams. In the second half against Civil Service we got battered and hung on for a draw.
“They weren’t putting us under that level of pressure. They were just able to mug us at intervals and tally the score up.
“We’ve had a free man at a corner and two individual errors to lose the three goals, which is absolutely criminal.
“We were a lot better in the second half in terms of not making mistakes.
“There’s a 4-0 gulf between the squads, the money and experienced players they’ve got is frightening, but it was a weird game. We were never in a position to get a draw or a win but we were a lot closer than a 4-0 suggests.”
Warwick made several changes for Wednesday night's Utility Hut South of Scotland Challenge Cup win over Creetown.
His focus is on Saturday’s Lowland League trip to Tranent, the final game of a run of fixtures which has seen Star face six of the top eight sides in the league.
Warwick said: “I’m not saying they’re easier after that as we have East Stirlingshire and Celtic B, but then we go into the final six games where hopefully we have everyone back from injury.
“If we can get everyone fit and healthy, which is probably highly unlikely, then out of our 22 players we have 14 or 15 really good options.
“Tranent are bringing in experienced players and very rarely lose up there so it’ll be a very tough challenge up there.
“You go up and it’s their patch. It can be quite unforgiving so it’s going to be a very difficult one.”
