Annan Athletic manager Peter Murphy praised his players’ tenacity and emphasised how much they are relishing Saturday’s final League Cup group clash at Motherwell.
Now Murphy is hoping they have enough in the tank for the encounter following a strenuous run of games against full-time outfits.
He said: “We have played Queen of the South, Airdrie and Queen’s Park who are all full-time and we have gone toe-to-toe with them which is pleasing.
“Although I would have liked better results.
“But this cup competition doesn’t favour League Two teams with the amount of games in a short space of time.
“I made six changes for the Queen’s Park game so we are getting players minutes of game time under their belts so we have good competition for places.”
Following Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Queen’s Park at Galabank, Murphy criticised the Spiders for their deception and hit out at the controversial penalty when Matty Douglas was ruled to have brought down Bob McHugh.
He said: “I think their players in the second half, maybe from the first half when they didn’t like our physical nature, had been told to go down if touched.
“But, well done to them for playing that way and getting results. It’s part of the game.
“I didn’t think it was a penalty and for one of their goals the ball touches the arm of their player.
“Now the rules say your hand, or arm, doesn’t have to be up that high. So that goal should not have been allowed.
“So the referee messed up there.
“The heat in this game, plus the training is on a warm night, will take it out of them.”
