Keith "lethargic" in Scottish Cup loss says Craig Ewen
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Keith manager Craig Ewen said his side went out with a "whimper" in their Scottish Cup defeat to Cumnock Juniors on Saturday.
The Maroons exited the cup at the first hurdle after a Jordan Moore penalty and Gregory Ferry header either side of a Matthew Tough goal sent the Ayrshire team into the hat for the second round.
Ewen was left disappointed with his side's performance after back of back to back wins against Forres Mechanics and Formartine United, but admitted his side were deservedly beaten by Cumnock.
"I didn't think Cumnock were overly good but they were better than us," Ewen said.
"We've gone out of the cup with a bit of a whimper to be honest.
"We were disappointing all the way through. We had a real lack of energy, lack of intent, lack of quality on the ball and the second half was same again really.
"They were more streetwise than us which you expect when you play a team from the west coast and the penalty was a penalty.
"We've just made a bad decision and then got caught at the edge of the box.
"The second goal we've just not tracked our runner at a corner so it was just a very disappointing day at the office for us.
"Cumnock were having a few shots at goal but most of them were from outside the box.
"I thought they were there for the taking today.
"We should have been braver to play out from the back. We weren't getting anything from the long balls.
"For whatever reason, off the back of two good performances, we just looked lethargic so I think we got what we deserved."
Keith started quickly against the visitors and very nearly went ahead early on through James Brownie only for the midfielder to see his shot at the near post saved by Jamie Barclay in the Cumnock goal.
Brownie's effort proved to be a rare sight at goal for the hosts, however, with Cumnock dictating much of the early play.
Having wasted a clutch of early chances which saw Findlay Frye go close twice, the visitors finally made the breakthrough when Demilade Yunus' clumsy challenge on Jamie Conn resulted in a penalty.
Jordan Moore made no mistake from the spot to give his side a deserved lead.
Keith, having been largely anonymous as an attacking threat, found an equaliser just before half time though with Matthew Tough bundling home Przemyslaw Nawrocki's smart cutback.
The Maroons could count themselves lucky to get to the interval with the score level but fell behind at the start of the second half when Gregory Ferry headed home a Jared Willet corner at the front post.
The visitors adopted a more defensive approach after taking the lead with Ewen sending on Joseph Wilson and Nathan McKeown to salvage the tie.
However, Ferry should have sealed Cumnock's progression to the next round when the ball dropped to him in the Keith box, but the centre half hesitated a fraction too long and saw his effort deflected wide.
Cumonck's Kyle McAusland was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch five minutes from time when a stamp on the forearm of Yunus went unnoticed by the match officials.
However, despite some late pressure, Keith could not force an equaliser and ultimately fell to a 2-1 defeat.
