KEVIN HAYNES insisted he was “very proud” of his Dunbar side who lost out in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup to Alloa yesterday.
The Seasiders took an early lead from Michael Barfoot but the Wasps quickly responded to go in at the break 2-1 ahead.
The second half was a very cagey affair, but both sides still had chances to score.
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Afterwards, Haynes looked back on a tremendous cup run and praised the team for giving everything they had.
“I’m very proud,” he said. “They gave everything and from our performance, I don’t think you could tell that there was three leagues' difference between the teams.
“We worked hard and deserved something from the game. I stated at the start of the season that I wanted progression in cups.
“To get to where we did in this cup against opposition who, bar one round, were all ranked higher than us [was great].
“We just need to build momentum from that performance and not take the defeat too harshly. You’d never have thought we’d take on Alloa and be disappointed to lose.
“We’re bitterly disappointed from that game and think we should’ve taken something from it.”
The defeat to Alloa caps off a brilliant cup run for Dunbar, who got into the third round with an unexpected win over League Two side East Fife.
Dunbar were comfortable against Alloa, with the Seasiders refusing to lie down and went onto test visiting keeper PJ Morrison on several occasions.
Haynes hoped that the fans would look back on the cup run positively, adamant that all his players could hold their heads up high.
He added: “The numbers coming through the gate show that they appreciate the cup run.
“The last round was magnificent because we won the game but we were good today and people will remember that.
“I’m not going to say we were the better team but we deserved something from the game, we competed with Alloa.
“Hopefully, they’re proud of the team.”
Alloa boss Andy Graham was full of praise for the hosts.
“I’m delighted with that result,” he said.
“Credit to Dunbar, they were excellent and they really went for it in the last 10 minutes.
“We spoke at half time about going onto get that third goal to try to kill it off [but never managed it].
“We knew that they’d put us under pressure in the last 10 minutes but, fair play to the boys, they stood up to it and stood strong.
“The objective was to get into the next round and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
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