Dalbeattie Star gaffer Eddie Warwick admitted his side’s humbling by Lochar Thistle was “embarrassing and humiliating”.
But he also claimed he wouldn’t be losing too much sleep over their South of Scotland Challenge Cup exit.
Star were thrashed 8-1 by Lochar at Islecroft on Saturday on a day when pretty much everything went wrong for the league champs.
Warwick said: “It’s horrible, horrendous, embarrassing and humiliating all at the same time but you move on.
“It happens everywhere in the world, everybody can be on the end of a hiding and unfortunately Saturday was our turn.
“I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep with it being the first round of a cup. We believe there’s bigger competitions and opportunities and there’s some big teams in that Challenge Cup and I think the eventual winners won’t come from the south.
“If I’m going to take a kick in the teeth I’d rather take it in the first round of a cup where you’ve got five games to the final and then face tough opposition there.
“In two years of being there we’ve not had before. Do we run away, hide in a hole and cry? No chance, we just move on, try to get positivity back in the players, remind them of the things they do well and are good at and get them dusted down to go again.”
Lochar took an early lead thanks to a fine Finlay Kennedy strike before Robbie Ferguson extended the advantage.
Marcus Zygadlo got the third and Ferguson’s second had Lochar in dreamland, with Star striker Ross Hunter missing a penalty just before the break.
Ferguson completed his hat-trick just after the break before Ewan Gourlay scored to give themselves a glimmer of hope.
However, Kennedy got his second and Lochar’s sixth to extinguish that, with Robbie Hogg and Blair Steele also finding the net before the end to complete a gr-eight day for Lochar.
Warwick said: ““They were totally and utterly gifted four goals, possibly five. It was individual errors we can’t legislate for.
“We’ve hit the post in the first minute, it was a good save from the goalkeeper. I think we should score and if we do, you don’t know what can happen.
“Instead, by 32 minutes you’re 4-0 down and every single one of them was calamitous. They were ruthless in terms of taking their chances and punished us for every mistake.
“I feel sorry for the goalkeeper because the mistakes are six yards out and they’re presented with an empty net.
“I don’t think they did anything we didn’t know about, I just think they did really well to capitalise. They looked fresh, fit and hungry and capitalised on everything we did.
“We didn’t get our head above the water and we make the next mistake, then the next mistake and so on.
“It’s as blatant as four individual errors for the first four goals, the players have held their hands up but it’s done.”
After Saturday, Star could be forgiven for being sick of the sight of Lochar.
But the two sides will do it all again at Islecroft on Saturday, this time in the semi-final of the Tweedie Cup.
Warwick insisted: “We enjoy playing Lochar. If you look at the scores – last year it was a 4-4 and a 2-2. In three cup finals it’s been one goal difference, we’ve beat them 3-2 in the league then all of a sudden there’s eight goals of a difference.
“I think everybody knows there isn’t seven goals between the two teams.