DEJECTED Irvine Meadow midfielder Ryan Deas is looking to recover quickly from his team's "heartbreaking" Scottish Junior Cup defeat by going all out to ensure Premier Division survival.

The Irvine side went down 2-0 to Linlithgow Rose in a fourth round replay with the visitors scoring two late goals to line up a clash with Kilwinning Rangers at Abbey Park a week on Saturday.

Now Meadow host Hurlford United in an important league match on Saturday.

Deas could still take positives from the display despite the defeat and said: "It's disappointing to be out of the cup and we we are all hurting. We showed a good team spirit and had a couple of good chances in the second half It was a bit of a heartbreaker to be lose two goals. But the first goal killed us as we were pushing for the game. I feel we deserved a draw but that is football for you. Linlithgow are a good side but we now have to pick ourselves up."

He added: "We competed as a team and that should give us more confidence going into the league matches. It's an important game on Saturday and we must look to take three points. We must win as many league games as we can , get away from the relegation zone and try to climb as high as we can. We are far too good a side to e down at the bottom. "

Manager Davie Greig was encouraged with the performance despite the result and said: "The boys are absolutely gutted to be out of the cup as I felt we dominated most of the game. When they scored it was always going difficult to get back into it . The boys worked their socks off and if we get that from now until the end of the season we will be all right."

He defended his team's attacking approach and said: "We could have sat in and tried to play for a draw and penalties but we are not playing that way. We are going to go forward and try and win games."

The gaffer, meanwhile is expecting a tough test against Hurlford said: "We have to be wary of a backlash after they lost at the weekend. They don't often lose two games in a row but we we are looking to win."

Meadow have signed former Glenafton Athletic and Clydebank wideman Adam Strachan winger, with the player making his debut in the cup tie.

Greig added: "Adam has signed for the rest of the season, he has a lot of experience in this league and will hopefully do well for us."