BOTH managers admitted it could have been a completely differenct story if Craigmark Burntonians had taken their chances in their defeat to Glenafton Athletic.

A Chris Dallas hat-trick was followed by a Cammy Marlow brace and goals for Dale Moore and Kyle McAusland as the home side comfortably reached the semi-finals of the Ardagh Glass Sectional League Cup on Wednesday night.

Glens boss Craig McEwan felt that Scott Dempster's missed penalty was major turning point for the home side.

He said: "It is a different game if they score the penalty. Young Iain [McKnight] is a local lad and he's come in and been absolutely fantastic. He will learn from that. He's still saying that he got the ball but you give the referee a decision to make by hanging your leg in there.

"Good players will play like that and, whether we like it or not, good players don't need any invitation to go down and they do. Would it have changed the outcome of the game? Probably not. It would have made it a little bit squeaky bum time probably but I think we thoroughly deserved it in the end."

Craigmark manager Ian Patterson acknowledged his side's good start but felt they were still beaten by the better side.

Patterson told the Chronicle: "I thought we started well. We did what we asked to do. Glenafton scored a cross for the first one, it was a kinda fluke goal. Then, in error, we give them the ball and give them a chance to score a second goal and it's 2-0 at half time.

"We're still pretty much in the game. Then we get ourselves back in with the chance to score a penalty and the boy slips and it hits off his other foot and before you know it, it's 4-0 and the game is over.

"On the whole, I thought in the first 20-30 minutes we did well but Glenafton killed us off like a good team should do. Fair play to them, I thought they did well.

"I think it's a learning curve for our boys because when you play teams in the Premier League and at that level, they take their chances and score goals. They scored five goals from outside the box which, in our league doesn't really happen.

"I think they were a pretty good game team. We had a goalie we signed today, four defenders missing and a couple of suspensions so we were a wee bit shorthanded."

Glens will play Hurlford United at Loch Park in the semi-finals on Wednesday but McEwan had his mind fully on this weeken'd clah with Beith.

He said: "Hurlford is another hard game but they are all hard games. The last time we played Hurlford here they beat us so we kinda owe them one.

"Hurlford is next Wednesday, we've got Beith to contend with first of all on Saturday. Beith are a very, very good side, I watched them on Monday night.

"It's a very, very hard place to go and we are a wee bit thin now in terms of numbers. We'll go from a team of 19 tonight to practically trying to piece together a team.

"We'll take stock and see how things go and then take care of the beith game before we think about Hurlford."