Max Ewan says Brora Rangers need to restore some pride in the second leg of their pyramid play-off tie with East Kilbride.
The Breedon Highland League champions were beaten 4-1 by the Lowland League winners at K Park on Saturday.
Although the loss has left the Cattachs with a mountain to climb to reach the play-off final against either Bonnyrigg Rose or Forfar Athletic, attacker Ewan is determined to put in a better showing next weekend at Dudgeon Park.
The 24-year-old said: “We’ve got nothing to lose and we need to go for it. It’s about pride as much as anything, we need to show how good we can play.
“We wanted to do ourselves, the club and the Highland League proud and we didn’t do anyone proud in the first leg.
“Now we’ve got nothing to lose and we need to try to give a good account of ourselves.
“None of us want to lose any game and we’re all very disappointed. We need to try to restore some pride by getting something out of the second leg.”
Bitter disappointment
Ewan admitted Brora were architects of their own downfall at K Park.
East Kilbride had the better of the first half and established a two-goal lead courtesy of Nathan Flanagan and Sean Fagan.
But Ewan pulled a goal back for the Cattachs in the 63rd minute and four minutes later East Kilbride had defender Jordan McGregor sent off.
However, Brora were unable to capitalise and a couple of defensive lapses in the closing stages were punished as Jack Leitch and Reagan Mimnaugh both netted for the home side.
Ewan, who almost scored a second moments after East Kilbride’s third, added: “We’re bitterly disappointed, we didn’t give a proper reflection of how we can play.
“They started fast, but we knew they would, the disappointment for us was that we didn’t keep the ball as well as we can.
“We tweaked things at half-time and got higher up the pitch, we managed to get back into the game with the goal and then they had the sending off.
“But we shot ourselves in the foot after that which is the most disappointing thing.
“East Kilbride are a really good team with a lot of quality so we knew everything about our performance had to be bang on the money and ultimately it wasn’t.”
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