Brora Rangers 2 Lossiemouth 2: Penalty heartache for Lossie in North of Scotland Cup
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Lossiemouth manager Joe Russell said his team were "absolutely devastated" after losing on penalties against Brora Rangers on Wednesday night.
The Coasters staged an unlikely comeback from 2-0 down at Dudgeon Park but fell agonisingly short of reaching the North of Scotland Cup final.
"We're absolutely gutted," Russell said. "I'm gutted for everybody involved really. I'm gutted for the players, the coaching staff and the chairman. It was so close and yet so far.
"We had three or four great chances to take the lead before their first goal. Their keeper pulled off two or three really good saves. We probably should have done better with one of those chances but we still got back into the game.
"Once we equalised we had all the momentum. It's a shame that we didn't have five more minutes or extra time because we probably would have got the winner."
Lossiemouth's performance on Wednesday night was much improved from their disappointing 3-0 loss to Preston Athletic in the Scottish Cup.
Brora took the lead against the run of play through Adam Mckinnon's sensational strike. A few minutes later, Matthew Wright scrambled home a controversial second for the hosts after calls for handball and offside were ignored by the referee.
However, Russell's side gave themselves hope with 15 minutes to play after Brodie Allen popped up with a vital goal. The comeback was complete when substitute Fraser Forbes scored in the last minute to force a penalty shoot-out against the much-fancied hosts.
Hopes of a home cup final appearance against Rothes at Grant Park were cruelly ended in the penalty shoot-out when Dale Gillespie converted the deciding spot kick.
The shoot-out ended 4-2 but Russell was left with a feeling of injustice.
"The second goal was a sickener," Russell said.
"The boy hand balled it to a boy who was offside who then popped the ball in the net.
"Some of the boys have already seen it on Brora TV and they say that's what happened.
"I'll need to wait until I watch it on our camera though. Sometimes these things happen but it seems to be happening a lot to us in the last few games.
"We just need to hope that it evens out for us as they say."
Lossiemouth will have to wait a fortnight before they can put their semi-final dissapointment behind them when they take on Fraserburgh at home.
