Formartine United exited the Scottish Cup in disappointing fashion with a 4-0 home defeat against Lowland League side East Kilbride.
The visitors started the game on the front foot and never looked back.
They scored in the 20th minute as the Formartine defence failed to clear the ball following a corner that let Paul Woods pick out Ruari Paton in the box, who made no mistake from eight yards.
Paton who was proving a handful for Formartine defenders Craig McKeown and Darryl Kelly then shot inches past, but the second and decisive goal came three minutes into the second half as Anthony Brady was allowed to run 20 yards before curling a low shot beyond Kevin Main from the edge of the area.
Garry Wood had an opportunity at the back post for United but couldn’t find the target and it was Kilby who netted a third after 56 minutes when Graeme Holmes slotted beyond Main from 22 yards.
Substitute Danny Carmichael set up Paton at the back post to add a fourth with 16 minutes remaining to complete the scoring, before United’s Gary McGowan was stretchered off soon after following a challenge with David Brownlie, which saw the home substitute being taken to hospital by ambulance.
United manager Paul Lawson was shell-shocked by his side’s display and struggled to take any positives from the encounter.
He said: “It was disappointing from start to finish and they got a lift from getting the first goal, but we still came in at half time just one goal down and not having played well.
“With 45 minutes to go we could have had a go but we lost the second goal right at the start of the half and when you go up 2-0 the game becomes easier as you find the extra yard of space and pace.
“We were pushing on to try to get back into the game when we lost the other two goals but it came back to not having that little bit of quality in the final third of the pitch.
“We let ourselves down collectively and I include the coaching team in that as well, as we are all a group together so we are as much to blame.”
East Kilbride’s caretaker manager Jim Paterson was delighted to see his team advance and felt they ran out comfortable winners at North Lodge Park.
He said: “We knew that it was going to be a challenge coming up here and we didn’t want to give the home team any advantage because they are a good team.
“We knew that we would have to battle to get anything from the game and we could have been on a banana skin as we had to match their work ethic and aggression but we adapted brilliantly and look forward to the next round.”
