Rutherglen Glencairn's penalty pain as Junior Cup dream ended by Arthurlie, despite battling display

Rutherglen Glencairn boss Joe Pryce praised his side for giving everything they had, after they suffered penalty shootout heartbreak in the Junior Cup.

Pryce’s side reached last season’s final and had designs on going all the way this year, but a painful 4-3 defeat in a penalty shootout with top flight Arthurlie, after a 3-3 draw over 90 minutes, sent them crashing out at the third round stage.

First Division Glens went a goal up through Allan Woodhouse, but conceded quickly after that, and Arthurlie netted a penalty to take a 2-1 lead into the interval.

Arthurlie netted a third, but subs Dylan Collins and Mason Durham scored within three minutes of each other to draw level in 67 minutes.

Neither side could force a winner, and Glencairn were reduced to 10 men in 81 minutes when Sean McGuire was shown a second yellow card.

That led to penalties as Arthurlie won 4-3 to progress to the fourth round.

Pryce was proud of his side’s efforts , but admitted their overall display wasn’t up to scratch.

He said: “We’re disappointed, obviously, to go out of the cup, but I think I was more disappointed in our performance.

“We didn’t really perform on Saturday and that was something that we keep drumming into the players, to put on the best version of yourself each Saturday and we didn’t really do that.

“We were up against a decent side in Arthurlie, but we couldn’t really impose our game on them, and a lot of credit goes to Arthurlie for that.

“But the lads deserve credit for sticking at it, even though they knew they weren’t playing at their best.

“They never gave up, they stuck at it, because when it went to 3-1 it looked a wee bit ominous for us, but the players dug in and we saw a wee rocky patch out for about five or 10 minutes