PATCHED-up injury-ravaged Irvine Meadow were praised by boss Brian McGinty and skipper Ben Carson for taking a precious point at Bellsdale Park.

The Irvine outfit drew 1-1 against a Beith side who only lost 3-0 to Ayr United in the Scottish Cup a week earlier and had chances which could even have seen them win the game.

McGinty said after the match: "We have a whole lot of injuries and were without Darren Miller, who was sick all night. It's a phenomenal effort to come here on the back of the run Beith have been on with half a team of players out and take something from it.

"We were playing people out of position, Ryan Carnwath was left-back, Rhys Devlin playing centre-half and Ciaron Smith playing on his own upfront and we had 12 players plus three young boys. We were the better side in the first half and created chances in the second half. But we defended well after the break. Jordan McGuire made a great run for the goal and it was a great finish from Jared Willet. Jared and Reece Pearson's pace on the other side gave us that ball to get out.

"It's a really good point and no-one expected us to get it. We will have players out until the end of January but we can't moan about it. We can fight like we did today."

Added the boss: "We have had some bad results this season but we've also had some really good performances against the better team and Beith are one of the best. We were well worth a point. Nothing gets decided now, we still have half of the season to go. I think the spirit, attitude and desire in the dressing room allied to our ability will see us okay. I believe in the players."

Carson added: "We were down to the bare bones but have done okay. I felt we started well, Beith are a good team and it's a point gained, we could have stolen it at the end. Jared Willet took the goal well.

"I've never seen injuries like we have this season, we have four strikers out and Mark McLennan is injured. A lot of people would have thought we would have got a doing but we will take a point.

"We have good players like Colin Spence and James Latta, who are Scottish Cup winners."

Meadow on Saturday play Petershill away and Carson said: "We will go there and look to take something from that. The aim is stay in the league and try and push up as high as we can."