Joe Pryce admits his Rutherglen Glencairn side were ‘a wee bit off it’ at Irvine Vics, but is just pleased to be through to the Scottish Junior Cup second round.
Goals from Dylan Collins, Roan Fitzpatrick and Scott Jarvie saw the South Lanarkshire side safely through, despite Ross Smith being sent off just after the hour-mark.
Vics were also reduced to 10 men as Jamie McBrearty saw red with five minutes left, and didn’t really force a save from keeper Chris White.
Collins lobbed keeper Richie McGregor-Ure but also cleared the bar early on, and a deflected shot landed just wide.
Ant McGuire had a header cleared off the line, before Collins opened the scoring in 43 minutes.
Despite Smith’s 62nd-minute dismissal, Glencairn wrapped up the game in 83 minutes when Fitzpatrick curled a shot into the bottom corner, and Jarvie added gloss to the score with two minutes left, after McBrearty had been sent off for the hosts after picking up two bookings.
Pryce was relieved to get through against their West of Scotland Third Division opponents, and expects more from his side.
He said: “It was a good result. We didn’t play so well, you could tell we had a week off, because we just looked a wee bit off it.
“We didn’t play at our best, but a lot of that was down to Irvine Vics, who really had a go at us.
“They were strong, they were physical but fair, and they pushed us all the way.
“We scored late on in the first half, then we score two late goals in the second half, so it was a tough cup tie for us and a good one for us to win.
“It was a difficult game. Any cup tie away from home is difficult, you saw that with a couple of the big names going out of the competition.
“It was a real cup tie, typical cup tie in Ayrshire, and I’m just delighted to get ourselves through it.”
Pryce was pleased with his scorers, and hopes to get more from other areas.
He said: “We scored three good goals, with Dylan Collins scoring again, Roan getting his goal and Jarvie scoring.
“We didn’t play as well as we normally do, but we are scoring goals, which is the part that we really wanted to improve on.
“Ryan McManus was the only player who scored double figures for us last season, so we really needed to get more players in there who could score goals – guys like Scott Jarvie, Dylan Collins, Jack McIlveen, who was scoring goals again before he got injured.
“We’re looking to get more goals from the front end of the field, but also midfield, and Ross Paton, Matty Meechan, Allan Woodhouse and Roan Fitzpatrick have already scored.”
Pryce has no quibbles with Smith’s sending off, and says it was a daft moment from his player.
He said: “It was just a wee bit silly from Smiddy.
“He’s gone in for the ball, he just got a wee bit excited, and we have no complaints – these things happen in the game.
“We have no complaints about the Smiddy decision. It was right in front of the referee, right in front of myself, so I saw it anyway.
“I’m disappointed for Smiddy, he’s worked his way back into the team, and he had been doing really well for us, but it’s one of those things.
“The players buckled down and made sure we got through in the tie, and I was delighted with their attitude.”
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