Auchinleck Talbot: Tommy Sloan after the defeat against Lossiemouth

Second division North Region League side Lossiemouth United surprised the 14-time Scottish Junior Cup winners with a 3-2 win at Beechwood Park on Saturday.

Talbot took the lead shortly before half-time with a header from Connor Boyd.

The guests were lucky at times, but then turned the game around and led 2-1 in the last ten minutes.

Talbot’s relentless pressure paid off when Luke Gillies equalised.

Although it looked at this point as if Talbot would finally get it, they suffered the decisive blow when Alex Matczak scored the third goal for Lossiemouth.

The visitors’ goalkeeper, Stephen Dey, still had time to make a few important saves before the final whistle sounded and Talbot’s elimination was confirmed.

Tommy Sloan says his team seemed to take the game lightly, but must use it as motivation to get back on their feet quickly.

He said: “This is a small disaster because we were eliminated from the cup early on.

“With all due respect, these are teams we should beat and we can’t hide from them.

“We need to pull ourselves together and raise our standards. We probably took Saturday’s game a little too lightly and we can’t afford that.”

Sloan is no newcomer to the competition and says his players must put the disappointment aside ahead of another important cup match this weekend.

Tommy Sloan was bitterly disappointed after the defeat at the weekend. (Image: NQ archive)

Talbot travel to the South Challenge Cup to face Bo’ness Athletic on Saturday and Sloan knows it will be a tough test.

He added: “We should have scored a lot of goals in the game but we conceded three goals and you can’t expect to win many games when you lose by three goals.”

“They are [Lossiemouth] and we wish them all the best. But for us it’s about getting back on our feet and next up is another important cup game.

“This is a blow at this point in the season. I was the one who selected the team and the decision is mine.

“Personally, I will need some time to recover, but as a team we cannot rest on this result.

“We have another cup game ahead of us, against a team that has already knocked Beith out, so it won’t be easy and we really have to do our best for it.

“Now it’s about the next game and getting back on track. That makes the other cups even more important now. So we’ll prepare well for that and hopefully we can do well in that competition.”