Annan Athletic boss brands Rangers' third goal in Scottish Cup clash "a freak"

Annan chief Peter Murphy branded Rangers’ killer third goal “a freak” and later insisted his players should savour creating history for the club.

The League Two side were beaten 3-0 by the Scottish champions in their Scottish Cup fifth round tie before a 2,500 capacity crowd at Galabank.

But Murphy said: “I told the players that they’ve made history for the club … and that they should enjoy that they got to play against Rangers."

However, Murphy revealed he gave his players a halftime roasting after they were battered in the opening stages of the game and trailed 3-0 after just 32 minutes.

He said: “I had a go at my players at half time which is saying something considering we were playing Rangers.

“But they didn’t show up for the first 20 minutes and whether they were awestruck against them I don’t know. But it is something they will have to learn from.

“Their first goal was from a set piece and we didn’t stop the corner, the second goal was excellent but the third goal was a freak.

“So we have not been carved open in the game while our keeper, Greg Fleming, made some excellent saves and we had to defend really well in the second half.

“Two or three players didn’t do what we asked them to do and that was disappointing and they have to learn from that.”

Murphy also disclosed how he apologised to the players he was unable to bring on from the bench.

He had listed himself, coach Colin McMenamin and keeper coach Jon Connolly as subs and explained: “In the Cup you can have 11 subs but you have to restrict your coaches, so by naming ourselves as players we could all be in the dugout.

“There was no chance any three of us would come on, absolutely not.

“I made the full five substitutions and I felt sorry for a couple of them