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Locos were left to rue missed opportunities as they went out of the Scottish Cup on a disappointing afternoon at Harlaw Park. There was optimism before kick off following Friday’s news of Milosz Ochmanski’s return to the club on a permanent basis. Ochmanski went straight into the starting eleven and had a chance to announce his arrival with an early goal but couldn’t keep his header on target.
That chance was symptomatic of a bright start by the Railwaymen and Josh Buchan was next to try his luck, firing over from the edge of the box after good work down the left. Locos continued to threaten, with Jay Halliday failing to get good contact on a back post header.
Sauchie’s first effort came just after the half hour mark when Paul Simpson’s low drive was kept out by Zack Ellis. The visitors had a string of corners in the latter stages of the half but weren’t able to test Ellis further. At the other end, Paul Coutts hit a free kick into the arms of Graham Bowman in the visitors’ goal.
With all to play for, Locos supporters were hoping their team could find more of a cutting edge after the break, but it was the East of Scotland Premier League outfit who made the breakthrough 10 minutes into the second half. Locos didn’t deal with a throw into the box and Dylan McGowan fired crisply past Zack Ellis.
Locos’ struggles in front of goal meant they were up against it now as they looked to get themselves back into the game. The chances that were coming so readily in the opening stages had dried up as Sauchie defended their lead and the Railwaymen couldn’t get the final ball quite right. When the visitors doubled their advantage with 20 minutes remaining, Locos’ fate was effectively sealed. They’ll again be disappointed with the goal as another throw was allowed to reach Josh Cairns who finished from six yards.
Locos didn’t throw in the towel but in truth they didn’t look like scoring once, never mind twice to force extra time. Sauchie were reduced to nine men by the end of the game with Dean Ritchie and Scott Davidson both receiving second yellow cards within a couple of minutes of each other. It was a development that had seemed inevitably throughout the second half but had little impact on the game, coming so late in the day. Callum Duncan’s late free kick fired straight at Bowman summed up an afternoon to forget.
Failure to progress in the cup is always disappointing but it was the nature of the defeat that most bothers Dean Donaldson, wasting several early chances before the opposition demonstrated how to be clinical. “I thought we started the game really well” the manager said “If we were three or four up by half time, it wouldn’t have been an injustice but there’s just nobody in there that looks like they’re going to score just now. They showed us how to finish when we made two mistakes.”
Locos travel to Strathspey Thistle next week, a very different proposition to previous seasons, where they will need to find their scoring boots.
