IRVINE Meadow boss Jamie McKim was left frustrated as his side's Scottish Cup tie ended in "chaos".
The North Ayrshire manager admitted it was a "sore" one to take as his team exited the competition at the hands of Bo'ness United.
The Lowland League East side were 3-2 winners after extra time after coming back from a 2-0 deficit at the break.
Goals from Andrew Gaffney and Euan Baird had put Irvine in a comfortable position before Kieran Mitchell cut the lead in half.
Robbie Murdoch then equalised with the final kick of the game, taking the game to extra time when Hamza Nimaga notched the winner.
"It’s a sore one," McKim said. "I feel for the players and the club because I feel like, in the 90 minutes, we did enough.
"I thought we were fantastic first half, they had maybe a 15-minute spell. I thought, at the start of the second half, we were dominant.
"Then their centre half hits one from about 35 yards, an absolutely belter of a hit, it comes off the crossbar, and their striker picks up the second ball to score, it’s the only aspect of the goal that I’m really annoyed at.
"From there, going into the closing stages of the game, I felt comfortable. I didn’t feel we were threatened."
McKim said it was a refereeing error which ultimately cost his side and caused bedlam on the touchline.
He added: "Very last kick, Stephen Docherty is running down the line, puts the ball past their fullback who fouls him.
"The ref doesn’t give it, then it’s chaos. After we don’t get the foul, we don’t deal with it well enough.
"But the fact is, if the referee blows the whistle and gives the free kick, the game is done because when the ball goes in the net for them, he blows the whistle.
"You don’t hear me speak about referees often because I respect they’ve got a hard job. The one thing you want from referees is them not to have an impact on the outcome of a game - they affected the outcome of the game on Saturday.
"When they score as well, there is an attack on our dugout from pretty much the entire Bo'ness technical area, they [the officials] don’t deal with it, and it ends up with myself and Ryan [Caddis] in the stand."
McKim admits there was still an opportunity missed to earn progress into the second round during extra time.
He continued: "On the flip side, we don’t deal well enough with extra time. We’ve done well enough to get through in the 90 minutes, but we don’t in extra time.
"I’ve still come away feeling very aggrieved. When we played Glenafton, they beat us and deserved it, Kilbirnie the same.
"I’m never one to be bitter with results when we lose, but that was a tough one for me to take."
However, the Meadow boss remains confident his side will recover quickly as they make a long-awaited return to Meadow Park on Saturday (October 10).
Irvine are set to host Shotts Bon Accord in the South Challenge Cup, ending a run of seven consecutive away matches which dates back to August 15.
McKim said: "We’ve shown before that there is a mental strength to this group and a determination to be successful.
"I’m expecting a quick response. We’ll have our meeting, go and train, then from there we’ll be looking forward.
"I’m looking forward to being back [at Meadow Park] on Saturday. I’ll need to look out the sat nav to get me down there, I’ve forgot my way, it’s incredible how long we’ve been away.
"We’ve got another two cup games, we need to make sure we get through then back to our league duties after that."
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