Albion Rovers 'very unfortunate' to be out of Lowland Cup as last silverware chance fades

Albion Rovers boss Sandy Clark insists his side are ‘very unfortunate’ to be out of the Lowland Cup after crashing at the first hurdle on Saturday.

The Cliftonhill side were playing their maiden game of 2025 after a host of postponements and made their first outing for six weeks when Bo’ness United came calling.

But a Kieran Mitchell effort for the visitors, heading home from a corner after just three minutes, proved the difference in a 1-0 defeat.

Towards the end of the first half, Peter Mendy was denied an equaliser after a brilliant double save to keep Bo’ness in front in the tie, while Billy Mortimer went close in the final stages with an acrobatic effort which went over the crossbar.

Clark felt his side had plenty of the game and said: “I’m really disappointed to lose the game. With the performance, we should have got a result.

“We were the better team for so much of the match. We created more chances, had more corners, all that kind of stuff, but we lost an early goal from a corner after a huge mistake from our point of view.

“We were left chasing the game after that and couldn’t get back into it. The fitness levels for not having played for six weeks were really good. I have no complaints about the effort from the boys. We just didn’t get the breaks.

“It is easy to say we were the better team but we didn’t put the ball in the net and Bo’ness did.

“We are very unfortunate to be out of the cup, that’s for sure. Their goalkeeper had a lot of good saves. He was man of the match, he did really well for them and coped well under a lot of pressure. He got very lucky to get away with picking up a passback. Everybody in the stadium thought it was a pass back but the referee felt it wasn’t.”

On the early exit, he added: