East Kilbride star David Ferguson polished off lack-lustre Diamonds, and said captain Jack Leitch told him it was his turn to shine.
Defender Ferguson netted the clinching penalty after Matty Connelly had saved from Chris Mochrie, and while he was nervous, Leitch’s words of encouragement helped enormously.
That sent the Lowland League side into the SPFL Trust Trophy quarter-finals, and Ferguson was delighted to be on the winning side.
He said: “There was a bit of nerves, but I thought through the game we probably deserved to win.
“Matty saved and I knew it was mine to hit. Leitchy gave me a wee push and said ‘it’s your turn, now’, so that was it, I just went up and it hit the back of the net.
“I haven’t hit many penalties. Maybe once before, but years and years ago. Usually it’s your forward players that are the ones who are scoring goals all the time.
“I’m not a goal-scorer, so usually you have your forwards hitting the first five and hopefully it’s done by that point, but it doesn’t bother me.”
Ferguson (pictured below, right) admits it was hard to take when Airdrie levelled through Gavin Gallagher in 86 minutes, and nearly won it when Ben Wilson was sent through on goal 60 seconds later, but reckons they deserved the win over the 90 minutes.
He said: “It’s a hard one to take when you have been dominating the game, but we know if we concede, keep it quiet for the next few minutes and then you’ll get back into the game.
“I think we did, we had another couple of chances after they scored.
“I thought we deserved it over the piece.
“In the first half we dominated the game, then maybe in the second half they changed their shape a wee bit, and caused us a few problems.
“They maybe had a couple of chances, but we had a few in the second half as well, so over the course of the game I think they deserved to win.
“We’ve played a couple of league teams and we know we’re capable of competing with them, if not beating them.
“We’re happy to win it, but we’re not overly surprised. We trust ourselves, our team-mates, and the staff.”
East Kilbride lost 8-0 to a free-scoring Airdrie side in the Premier Sports Cup group stages back in July, and while that was in the back of his mind, he says it wasn’t extra motivation.
“I did play in the 8-0 game – thanks for reminding me,” he said.
“You put it out of your mind. That game was a wee bit different, because we had a few new boys in, playing a new shape, and they were getting used to that.
“We actually played all right that day. – I know that sounds daft, but in the first 40 minutes we played all right, and every mistake we made we got punished for.
“We knew if we cut that out on Saturday we’d have a much better chance.
“We wanted to rectify what had happened in the first game – we certainly did that.”
East Kilbride move on to a Lowland League double-header at home to Cowdenbeath tonight (Wednesday) and Hearts ‘B’ on Saturday, and Ferguson said: “Wednesday at East Kilbride we’ll be playing Cowdenbeath and that’s another hard game.
“We played them a couple of times last season and they gave us a good game, but it’s back to league action, that’s the main thing for us, getting on in the league and hopefully doing well.
“It’s always a hard league. I don’t think people appreciate how hard a league it is.
“Every year you have a new couple of teams that are hard to beat, or they have new signings and they come together and do really well.
“It’s a hard league, but hopefully we can do well in it.”
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