Elgin City manager Gavin Price admitted slack defending proved to be a harsh lesson learned as his side were crushed 6-1 by Dundee United in the Premier Sports Cup at Tannadice.
Kane Hester got City in front early on before a Lawrence Shankland double and goals from Nicky Clark and Peter Pawlett had the Premiership coasting at the break.
Further goals from Kieran Freeman, his first for United, and substitute Chris Mochrie ran the score up higher.
Price saw tie as opportunity missed
This makes it two straight losses in Group B for Elgin after their 1-0 home defeat against Championship team Arbroath at the weekend.
Price felt there were positives to glean from such a tough encounter.
He said: “If the game stopped at 20 minutes we’d have been delighted. At that point, we were quite happy with what we were seeing.
“United were not created a lot of chances and it was a poor game that let them in. That got their tails up and their confidence going again.
“We then went on a self-destruct mode for a 10-15 minute spell, which cost us the game. It is much more comfortable and easy for a full-time team to play against us when they have got that security.
“For the rest of the game, they played some excellent football, but given where we are in terms of fitness and playing catch-up, we have a lot of work to do.
“We showed enough at the start of the game to demonstrate what we’re about. We didn’t do the nitty-gritty of defending well enough and conceded soft goals and that was the disappointing factor.
“I feel we let an opportunity go today. We could have made it an uncomfortable night for Dundee United. Had we been further down the road with our training, we would have been 10 minutes away from starting to turn the crowd.”
All eyes towards league start on July 31
For a club affected by a 10-day Covid shutdown, Elgin have been using this competition as a fitness push towards their League Two kick-off against Stranraer on July 31.
Elgin, who play League Two rivals Kelty Hearts at home in the cup next Tuesday, are having a bounce game against Highland League opponents Nairn County this Saturday at Borough Briggs.