Scottish Cup heartache for Broxburn Athletic

Broxburn Athletic boss Steve Pittman has urged his players to use the motivation from their sickening Scottish Cup exit to go on and gain promotion to the Lowland League.

The Albyn Park men bowed out of the competition at the third-round stage with a devastating 5-4 penalty shootout loss to last season’s Highland League runners-up Buckie Thistle.

Broxburn had led until the last kick of the ball, with in-form striker Errol Douglas looking like he had got the winner. However, in the 98th minute, with fans from both sides expecting referee Greg Soutar to blow the final whistle, Josh Peters fired in, with Soutar blowing for full-time immediately after the restart.

Lewis Turner then sent the home support wild in the second period of extra-time with a clever free-kick, but Buckie struck again to send the tie to penalties as they threw everything at the home side in the closing moments, striking the woodwork three times in a crazy 30 second period before eventually finding the net.

“I am devastated for the players, it was a sore one to take,” said Pittman. “At the end of the 90 minutes he [Greg Soutar] played seven minutes [of added time] and it was never seven minutes. They scored, but in extra-time, I told them ‘You will go on and win the game’. He played two and a half minutes extra in the last 15 minutes of extra-time, for what reason, I don’t know.

“He said to us that because when we scored, there was people on the park so he gave two and a half minutes for that. As soon as we had taken centre, he blew the whistle straight away, maybe he was just trying to let the play run out, I don’t know what.

“They are a good side, there is no two doubts about that. I am just gutted because we had our chances.

“I went in there and the boys are devastated, and I told them ‘football is a cruel game at times’. We just need to keep on going, it’s one defeat, but it’s the Scottish Cup and they might go and get Rangers or that, and the boys will look at those goals we lost both in the last minute. They threw everybody up, but we’ve just got to defend better.”

Pittman continued: “It’s small margins and you get punished. I would rather we got beat 3-0 than getting beat in that way, because that was cruel.

“We need to pick ourselves up and get on with it. I am just gobsmacked, the same as all the players, the committee and the fans – who were brilliant.

“The boys should be proud of what they have done. We have taken them to the limit, we competed, we got stuck in, and we did have chances but you need to take your chances in football.

“We are looking to get promoted, it’s going to be tough. We have a cup game on Tuesday, which is the last thing we could do with, but we will just need to deal with it.”

Elsewhere, East of Scotland Premier rivals Dunbar United’s terrific run was ended by League One Alloa Athletic, losing 2-1 after taking the lead.