IT’S back to “bread and butter” for Glenafton Athletic after their Scottish Cup adventure came to an end against Championship side Livingston at Almondvale.

A Dylan Mackin double quashed any hopes of a possible upset as the Lions ran out 2-0 winners.

However, boss Craig McEwan is confident his players can repeat the treble-winning heroics of 2016-17 and qualify for the competition again next season.

McEwan told the Chronicle: “It’s been brilliant, absolutely brilliant. We’ve been able to test ourselves and it’s been great.

“I’ve got good players, really good players here and they are just a pleasure to work with, they are a joy. Hopefully it’s made a few quid for the club as well. It’s been brilliant.

“The plan is to replicate what we did last season. It’s going to be really, really tough but I’ve got the boys in the dressing room who can go and do that.

“I know for a fact they’ll do it and it won’t be through a lack of trying, that’s for sure.

“It’s going to be tough. We’re a scalp every week now when we play against anybody so we’ll see what happens and we’ll go from there.”

McEwan had put three up front in an ambitious bid to try and out-fox Livi but the home side stood firm and brushed off anything Glenafton threw at them.

The Glens gaffer was disappointed, but conceded that the better team won on the day. He added: “Listen, they are a right good side. You can see why they are sitting second top of the Championship.

“We wanted to come today and we wanted to compete and I think we more than competed. I think we more than matched them as well.

“With a wee bit of luck on another day we’d maybe sneak a goal and made it a wee bit closer but I can’t ask any more.

“All I can ask of the players is to make sure they come off the park knackered to a man.

“Everyone gave it everything they had today, so I’m proud as punch to be fair. I said to the boys in there, it’s another piece of history they’ve been involved in at this club.

“It’s been a good distraction for us but we are back to bread and butter now and next week it’s the Junior Scottish Cup so we can’t rest on our laurels.

“We’ll get all the plaudits out of today which I’m sure we fully deserve as well and we’ll see what happens next week.”

Next up for Glens is a tough away trip to Cumbernauld as they take on Kirkintilloch Rob Roy as they continue their defence of the Junior Cup.