Shotts No.2 Martin Devlin was thrilled with his side’s 6-0 cup demolition of Burntisland Shipyard, as they seek to exorcise the demons of a 4-1 hammering by Cumbernauld United in their previous outing.
Devlin still wants a reaction to that defeat when they head to Guy’s Meadow in the Scottish Junior Cup first round, but says the 6-0 win helps.
Shotts blasted their way to a South Challenge Cup second round meeting with Rossvale Academy on September 10, and Devlin was delighted.
He said: “It was the first of two cup games, and I said to the guys before that it’s a chance to get a wee bit of consistency in our form before we start back in the league in a couple of weeks.
“It wasn’t just a win we were looking for, we wanted a performance as well, especially after the Cumbernauld game the previous week, when we were poor across the board.
“But fair play to them – six goals and a clean sheet, I don’t think we can ask for too much more!
“I didn’t want it to be one of those games where we scraped a 1-0, it was a wee bit stuffy and we don’t really get anything from it.
“But we scored six really good goals and kept a clean sheet, so that helps with the confidence in the squad.”
Devlin says only one player got credit for the 4-1 defeat, but hopes for different fortunes this time.
He said: “Normally you get two or three players having a bad game in a defeat, but we had 11.
“PJ O’Donnell came on for 30 minutes and showed that he probably should have started the game.
“The guys want to go out and put it right themselves, they don’t need John [McKeown, the manager] or I to motivate them.
“It’s not so much a point to prove, but I have great confidence that it was just a bad day.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
