Irvine Meadow boss Brian McGinty has demanded a derby day reaction from his players - after admitting their Sectional League Cup hopes are all but over.
Meadow slipped to a 1-0 defeat against Troon on Monday night to leave them hoping for a miracle in their bid to reach the last 16 of the competition.
A trip to Irvine Vics tonight rounds off their group campaign with Medda needing a win and Troon to lose at home to Craigmark to progress to the knockout stages.
McGinty fully expects the Seasiders to finish the job and reckons his players only have themselves to blame after a poor performance.
But he insists there’s no time for self-pity and has ordered his side to put things right against town rivals Vics.
Vics go into the game on the back of 4-1 and 5-1 defeats against Troon and Craigmark respectively.
But McGinty said: “Whether it was Vics, Talbot or anyone else, I’d expect a reaction from the dressing room.
“We didn’t deserve to beat Troon. We weren’t good enough.
“We didn’t pass the ball well enough and overall it was a poor performance from us. The players are under no illusions about that.
“No disrespect to Vics or Craigmark, but the way these groups are set-up it means the game between the two superleague teams becomes a play-off to get through.
“We told the players we needed to beat Troon because you’d expect them to beat Craigmark on Wednesday.
"The Vics game will take care of itself but we have to make sure we go out there and give a much better performance.”
Kick-off at Victoria Park is 7pm.
