St Cuthbert Wanderers boss admits he feared double figures defeat in Scottish Cup thumping

St Cuthbert Wanderers boss Josh Gardner admits double figures were in his mind as his side were being thumped by Linlithgow Rose.

On the weekend when both Liverpool and Celtic rattled nine goals past their opponents, Saints were on the receiving end of a 9-0 scoreline as their Scottish Cup dream ended at the preliminary stage.

And Gardner said: “I’d be lying if I said it (conceding 10) didn’t come into my head, especially after 26 minutes when we were 4-0 down.

“I said to one of my coaches if we could just get in at 4-0 we could try to regroup a wee bit, which is a mad statement in itself when you think about it.

“Just as I said that Mark Stowe, who seemed to score every time he touched the ball, sailed in a free-kick from about 25 yards so that was that out the window!

“It was damage limitation. When we got in at half-time it was about showing a bit of character. In fairness in the second half we were better, we weren’t getting cut open as much and we had a few shots at goal as well.

“Sometimes football takes you to school on Saturday and that’s what happened. We need to learn from that otherwise it was just a complete waste of time. That’s not just the players, it’s everyone, and we need to be better equipped if we come up against a test like that again.”

Connor McMullen opened the scoring for the home side before Mark Stowe struck a hat-trick to put Rose 4-0 up after just a quarter of the match.

Stowe made it 5-0 with a great free-kick before half-time and he continued in that vein early in the second half, taking his personal tally to five.

An own goal heaped more misery on Saints before Sandy Cunningham made it eight, Stowe the obvious man to round off the scoring.

Gardner admitted: “We always knew it was going to