Dougie MacDuff has put his Irvine Vics players though a rerun of their West of Scotland League Cup video nasty against Thorn Athletic.
Now he’s hoping the harsh dose of reality TV will give the Westenders pause for thought ahead of a return to league action this weekend.
MacDuff was left shell-shocked by the manner of his side’s incredible 7-6 preliminary round defeat to lower league Thorn on Saturday.
And he reckons it’s vital lessons are learned if they want to put the horror show behind them and continue the fine start to their WoSFL Division Three campaign.
He said: “In all my years in football I’ve never seen anything like it.
“How can you go away from home, score six goals and still not win the game?
“To be honest, a scoreline like that, at this level of football is woeful. Anyone glancing at it would probably think the game went to penalty kicks.
“Full credit to Thorn, they deserved to win and I’m not trying to take anything away from them, but from our point of view the performance was not acceptable.
“The goals we gave away were horrendous and I expect boys to put their hands up after that.
“We watch the games back every week and it won’t make for comfortable viewing but it has to be done. This has to be a wake-up call for us.”
MacDuff admits his side face a test of character this Saturday when they host a Lanark United side who sit one place and three points above Vics in the table, albeit having played two games more.
He said: ”We’ve won seven-in-a-row in the league but it’s how we react now to a setback that’s important.”
Vics will have to do without midfielder Ciaran Walsh who faces six weeks on the sidelines after picking up a knee injury in the Thorn loss.
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