Stoneyburn boss disappointed with League Cup performance in loss to Whitehill Welfare

Stoneyburn boss Steven Sharp lamented his side’s performance in their League Cup defeat to Whitehill Welfare but said the 5-0 loss was a good yardstick for how they can improve, writes Callum McCormack.

Welfare were three goals up after just 20 minutes as the East of Scotland Premier Division’s bottom side put any chance on an upset to bed early on.

Sharp said: “The performance was poor. I think we just never seemed to get going. They kind of took control of the game. They were breaking at us and we were kind of all over the place, to be honest and we got punished.

“We lost goals pretty early on and pretty close together, so it was a tough one to take.”

The gaffer is already looking at how his side can address the issues ahead of this weekend’s Conference X tie with Syngenta, saying: “I think the second half we changed the shape but the damage was done by that point. All credit to them, they played well and we really struggled.

“I just think a lot of the basics at times, we need to improve on, and we need to look at bouncing back.

“We’re back into league business so we can’t sit and lick our wounds too much, we need to really as a group sit down and look at how we rectify it and make sure something like that doesn’t happen again, and try and move on from it.”

The Fulshie will also face EoS top flight side Dunbar United as well as Division One outfits Kennoway Star Hearts and Ormiston in the League Cup and Sharp discussed his desire to use those games to benchmark the club against other East of Scotland teams.

He commented: “For me it’s about going and seeing where you can compete. You’re playing against teams at a higher level. So you’re looking to go and see how much you can compete with teams at a higher level.

“How