PAUL RAGES AT LANG PLAYERS

watched his side battle bravely against Auchinleck Talbot in the West of Scotland Cup the previous weekend, was criticised by supporters for making six changes ahead of the tie but he insisted some of them were forced. “I’m still a raging,”he said. “We’re disappointed to go out two major cups in two weeks.

“It was a poor performance but Lochgelly were a hard working team and that’s how they won the game.

“There were a few changes. [Mark] Bishop was on holiday, Iain Stewart had a shoulder injury and one of our midfielders wasn’t 100 per cent, so some of the changes were forced.

“If we had won the game then no one would have moaned about the changes.

“At the end of the day the players didn’t perform.

“We started well and I thought after we scored we could have gone on to score a few goals.

“But after that it got worse and worse. We could have played until next week and not got another goal.

“Halliday’s red card didn’t help matters as well with us trying to get another goal.”

Having been knocked out of three competitions since August, The Lang’s sole focus will be on their league campaign until the Central League Cup starts in the spring.

McColl admitted that he wasn’t best pleased with the way the fixtures turned out for his side this month but accepted it had no impact on their results.

He added:“In my opinion you should not put two major competitions together.

“It can end a team’s season if they aren’t doing so well in the league.

“It would have been nice to get a run in the Scottish and get some money into the club.

“I would rather have been still in it to be honest, but it could be good for us in the long run.”

McColl’s men travel to Wishaw Juniors this weekend, hoping to continue their impressive league form at the top of the table.

The Beltane Park side sit eighth in the league and go into the match following a 5-0 hammering to Dundee North End in the Scottish Junior Cup last weekend.

The Lang manager, who said there would be changes for the match, added:“We obviously need to take it on the chin and not go in a huff.

“We need to go and win on Saturday and get back on a good run.

“Saturday was a poor result for them but Wishaw are a good side and it’s one of my old teams.

“They’re doing well and I know some of the players so I know how good they are but we have good players too.

“I went to watch them against Cumnock in the Scottish [in the first round] and they could have scored a few more but ended up winning 2-0.”