Cupexit sohard totake forScone

Scone Thistle suffered Scottish Junior Cup heartache on Saturday.

The Jags tumbled out of the competition at the third round stage, agonisingly losing on penalties against Aberdeen East End.

For the second successive week the teams battled to a 1-1 draw, this time at Farquharson Park, with Darren Gray on the scoresheet for Scone.

But the visitors triumphed 4-2 on spot-kicks and that means all Perthshire teams have been knocked out of the competition before the fourth round.

Gutted manager Sean Whitworth praised the effort of his players and said: “Penalties are a cruel way for any team to go out of a competition.

“The lads were gutted and I believe we did enough to win the game in the 90 minutes.

“They responded well through the week in training to prepare and applied it to the game.

“Unfortunately it was not to be this time. However, they can still hold their heads up with the performance that was put in.

“It was a good game of football. We had a high tempo about our play and our attack from the first minute.

“We had a few chances in the first half we could have done better with, but I can’t fault the workrate and effort from my players.

“To be fair to East End, they were very organised in their defence and worked hard throughout. I wish them all the best in the next round of the competition.”

While the immediate aftermath of the defeat brings a huge sense of disappointment, Whitworth will make sure his players are back ready for action this weekend.

“We go again in training and now look forward to the next game,” he said. “It is another hard but exciting test against Broughty Athletic.

“Broughty are flying high at the moment and will be favourites for the match.

“But we will be determined to put the cup exit behind us and work hard to aim for a positive result.”