Kello Rovers boss Scott Clelland felt his players suffered from 'stage fright' as their Scottish Junior Cup adventure hit the buffers against Beith.
The League One underdogs fell to a 4-1 quarter final defeat at Bellsdale this afternoon with the Premiership hosts playing most of the second half with 10-men.
Rovers briefly looked like they might pull off a shock when Mark Armour cancelled out Kenny McLean's opening goal just minutes after Beith striker Ross McKenzie was sent off for violent conduct.
But Beith replied almost instantly through Darren Christie and Conner McGlinchey and Callum Imrie followed up with goals of their own to put the tie to bed.
Clelland reckons nerves got the better of his side, inhibiting them from playing their normal game.
He said: "I said to the boys before the game, whatever we do, don't freeze, don't give them too much respect, we've brought a big crowd.
"For 25 minutes in the first half we were passengers. We had 10 passengers and we let the game pass us by.
"I told them to shift the ball from side to side but we weren't doing it or tracking runners.
"Boys I can usually rely on to pass the ball about didn't do that today.
"We just got into this long ball scenario all the time and Beith were sweeping it up. When you're playing against teams like that you need to hold on to the ball and we didn't do that as well as we could've done.
"The last 15 minutes of the first half we came into it a wee bit better.
"We gave them a gutting out at half time. We weren't out of it though and, to be fair, they came out and responded.
"When we scored the goal I said, 'hey we're in this here'.
"If we'd have kept it at 1-1 for another five or 10 minutes it might have been a different game.
"But they went up the park and scored, and a few of the boys maybe thought then we've had our chance.
"I also think them going down to 10 men worked against us. It galvanised them.
"You wouldn't know they had 10 men and their class showed a wee bit near the end of the game.
"But listen, I can't moan at the boys for the players I've got, compared to what's in the other dressing room.
"Some of us I think got stagefright, first half anyway.
"I didn't think we'd come down here today and get beat 4-1."
