Albion Rovers boss Kevin Harper says the Scottish Cup draw with Fort William didn’t make him feel any more gutted than other poor results.
The home side had taken the lead as Hamilton Accies loanee Jack Breen’s right-footed shot found the corner.
However, Rovers failed to build on the strike and Ross Gunn’s free-kick found Gabriel Hastings to head in from close range.
While the gaffer said he was disappointed by the players, he said he didn’t feel any worse than if it was a league shock despite the status of the Highland League strugglers.
He says his players will have to be much-improved for the replay at Claggan Park this weekend if they want to earn a Monklands Derby tie against Airdrie in the next round.
Harper said: “It’s a disappointing result, at the end of the day there isn’t any hiding from that.
“When you look at the balance of play, we should have won the game.
“Fair play to Fort William though, they held on and kept it to just one goal. We didn’t take our chances, but I don’t think Pottsy [Daniel Potts, goalkeeper] had a save to make.
“It should have been a game we won comfortably, but we have to take our medicine and give Fort William credit.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t win, but no more than any other result where we drop points. It doesn’t matter that they are coming from that level, it’s our performance that disappoints me.
“We can’t have any more results like this though, the players know themselves that it’s not acceptable.
“The only positive for us is that we are still in the cup.
“The players know what we are about, and that wasn’t the systems that we want to play. It was disjointed, and the players weren’t playing as a team.
“At half-time we could have been three up though, with all of that said. They got the opportunity, but we should have won that even when we aren’t at our best.”
He continued: “ Fort William didn’t surprise us at all.
“Realistically this game was a lose-lose situation for us. If we had won, then people would have said it’s an easy win. If we do anything else it’s a let down for us.
“They lifted their game to their very best and got something, now we have to raise our game and go to their place and win the replay.”
