Vale cup exit puts Dolan in doldrums
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
STEVIE Dolan believes Deveronvale's Scottish Cup exit was a big opportunity missed by his team.
Vale slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Lowland League University of Stirling, who reached the third round of the competition for the first time in their history after their Banff success.
Dolan felt his players did not rise to the cup occasion and too many were below par.
"We should have done better. I think the boys let themselves down," he said.
"We didn't have enough players playing well. We had a couple of alright performances but you need more than that for a big Scottish Cup game.
"You have got to bring your game into a big occasion like that. You need to give your all and I just don't think they did that. That is always going to leave you with regrets.
"We didn't pass the ball like we usually do. If we had done that we could have been in the next round. We just didn't turn up and we got what we deserved which was nothing."
After a goalless first half of few chances, Stirling were awarded a penalty on the hour when Harry Noble was penalised for handball in the box and Lewis Bonar scored from the spot.
Five minutes later Vale drew level when Noble crossed for Matty Wallace to net a close range volley.
"When we scored to make it 1-1 I thought we would kick on," said Dolan.
"But five minutes later they got their second goal.
"It was a big chance for us but credit to Stirling. They played well and we didn't, I think they were there to be got at but we didn't do that."
Dominic Slattery's low finish past Errol Watson proved to be the winner for the university side, who now host Elgin City in their first-ever outing in round three.
Vale are Stirling's second Highland League scalp after they defeated Keith by the same scoreline in the first round of the competition.
Dolan consulted Keith manager Dean Donaldson for information and had the Uni team watched, but always knew how his own team played would determine the outcome.
"The two teams were pretty evenly matched but I said to them before the game, it was going to come down to who was the best team on the day and it was them.
"Even if you are not playing well you need to work harder than the opposition but we didn't close them down, we didn't win tackles, we didn't win headers. We didn't even do the basics right."
The Deveronvale manager remains confident his players will bounce back when they host Strathspey Thistle in a league game this weekend.
"I've told them they can't keep turning it on and off. We are not a good enough team to do that. The likes of Cove can have a bad game and still get a win but if we play badly we generally lose the games.
"We've got to try and get some consistency which we are working on. They are young lads but they are grown up now, some of them have played 100 games at this level so they've got to start showing a bit more experience in big games.
"We always get good reactions from them and I will expect that again on Saturday."
Steven Davidson made his return on Saturday as sub for the last 10 minutes on Saturday. Sam Robertson was at a wedding and missed the cup-tie but is back this weekend.
