Vale of Leven boss Brian Brown was disappointed after watching his side crash of the Macron Scottish Junior Cup in the second round after West Premiership side Kilbirnie Ladeside eased to a 3-1 home win on Saturday.
Jamie Longworth netted a first-half hat-trick to put the hosts in the driving seat before Chris Jackson pulled one back late on to give Vale hope, but it was too little too late as the hosts progressed.
And while the Vale gaffer was not happy with his side’s cup exit, he admits it was perhaps an eye opener for his young players.
Brown said: “3-1 against the third placed team in the Premiership means we’re not too far away from what we expected.
“We had a terrible first-half but the second-half was more like us and we took the game to them.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys in the team that have aspirations and now they’ve tasted it they know what they’ve got to do to get there.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t have a run in the cup this season. If we made it 3-2 it would’ve made an interesting last five minutes.”
It took just three minutes for Ladeside to open the scoring with Vale’s Adam Monaghan failing to clear his lines which then allowed Longworth to take advantage and slot it beyond Reece Pollock between the sticks.
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The hosts nearly had a second soon after when Mick O’Byrne got behind a bad clearance but Pollock was quick to make amends and block the effort with his legs.
The Premiership side’s second arrived not long after, however, as Longworth bagged his brace on 27 minutes after finishing off a well worked move that saw Chris Craig thread through for Jon Scullion who cut back for the hitman to net.
Moments later, Longworth’s hat-trick was complete after more magic from Craig saw it played through for Longworth to slam home from close range and all but kill the game.
But fair play to the Vale youngsters who dug deep and never gave up as they grabbed a lifeline on 73 minutes when Scott Arthur’s ambitious chip from outside the box hit the underside of the bar and bounced out for Jackson to make no mistake from point-blank range.
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Kilbirnie saw it out with ease, however, with Vale now turning their attention back to their League Two campaign.
Elsewhere, Vale of Leven U15s lost out 7-2 to defending PJDYFL champs Glenbrae Colts.
Glenbrae opened up a 4-0 lead as the Vale 2005s struggled to get going.
But, despite the deficit, Vale continued to work hard off the ball and were rewarded as Ryan Murray pulled one back.
Chris McGroggan reduced the deficit further but Glenbrae eventually ran away with it as Vale continue to search for their first PJDYFL division one league win of the season.
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