Irvine Victoria boss Stevie Wilson was proud of his players after they went down 1-0 to a strong Auchinleck Talbot side in the Ardagh Glass League Cup semi-final last night.

The hosts lost out to an early Calvin Kemp goal, with Talbot now going on to face Glenafton Athletic in next month's final.

Wilson said afterwards: "When you lose the goal as early as we did, it's difficult. We had set out not to conceded in the opening five to 10 minutes and that would give us something to build on.

"We showed great spirit and have a real work ethic, our team shape looks decent. I don't think our goalie Chris Lamb had much to do. The players must take a lot of credit. over the course of the league cup campaign we have done well, against the likes of Meadow and Hurlford and we ran Buffs close. People might have come here expecting a goal fest but we played well. I felt we set our standards well. 

He was disappointed with the challenge on Kevin Adam by Ross Harvey, who was booked with the striker being taken off and needing stitches in a head wound.

"It was a last man challenge on Kevin Adam - his elbow caught Kevin first and then he's pulled him. It wasn't an attempt to play the ball. He took him out, we didn't get much. Kevin needed stitches - he was feeling dizzy and we had to take him off. George Bonner took an elbow on his head and was cut, that was right in front of the linesman, who said he didn't get his view of it," the manager said.

He added: "We soaked up a lot of pressure we were dangerous on the counter. We had a couple of chances early in the second half. Talbot only played on Saturday but we were out Friday, Monday night and tonight. The boys have done us proud, if you can't take confidence from this you never will. We are getting lots of plaudits for our play. In the first half their goalie made a great save from Kevin Adam. I'm more gutted with the result than I was against the Buffs."

This weekend sees Vics hosting a Maybole side who have also started well.

The manager added: "Saturday is an important game against Maybole and hopefully we can get the job done."