CUMNOCK boss Brian McGinty says he wants his players to use Saturday’s shock cup defeat to Craigmark as a chance to press the reset button and focus on ending the year on a high.

Nock tumbled out of the West of Scotland Football League Cup at the hands of their East Ayrshire rivals after a 1-1 draw at Townhead Park, with Mark keeper Dylan Caddis making three fine saves in the deciding penalty shoot-out to earn the underdogs a place in the tournament’s last 16.

The result ended an unbeaten run for Nock against WoSFL opposition stretching back to the beginning of September – but McGinty said he had no complaints about the outcome.

Speaking to the club’s own media team, McGinty said: “In the first half I thought we were really good – probably could have been a couple of goals up – but in the last 10-15 minutes Craigmark came into it.

“In the second half, they deserved their goal, and then it goes to penalties. We’ve won a couple this season and the law of averages says you’re going to lose one.

“We won’t hang the boys out to dry for missing the penalties – we weren’t good enough in the second half. Craigmark deserved their draw and they deserved to go through.”

The game ended a busy spell of three matches in eight days for McGinty’s troops, with two cup-tie shoot-outs against Craigmark and Auchinleck either side of a 3-3 league draw at home to Glenafton last Wednesday night.

Nock’s full attention now turns to the Premier Division and two more home games to end the year, first against Troon this Saturday (December 17) – KO 1.30pm – and then under the lights against Darvel on Friday, December 30 at 7.30pm.

“It’s important we go and get two positive results in those games,” McGinty said, “and that’ll set us up for the new year,

“We’re disappointed to be out of the cup. We want to be in the later stages of these trophies. But we’ll dust ourselves down, get back to training this week, use it as a reset point and we’ll make sure we go on another good run.”

Watch the post-match interviews with the Cumnock boss, and comprehensive highlights, from both the Craigmark and Glenafton fixtures at the Cumnock Juniors channel on YouTube.