Mark Cowie felt his patched up Fraserburgh side competed well in their Premier Sports Cup loss against Montrose.
The Broch were beaten 4-2 at Bellslea by the Gable Endies in their Group B clash.
Cowie was without seven first-teamers – Willie West, Paul Leask, Paul Campbell, Ryan Cowie, Aidan Combe, Lewis Davidson and Jamie Beagrie.
But the Fraserburgh manager still felt his charges competed well against League One opposition.
He said: “The goals we gave away were criminal really which isn’t like us normally.
“But at the same time I think they only had three chances and scored three goals in the first half while at times Ryan Sargent and Lewis Duncan caused real problems.
“It might sound stupid to say it but I don’t think there was much between the two teams.
“In the second half we were more aggressive, on the front foot and we caused more problems.
“We were a little bit unlucky as well we had a couple of decent penalty shouts and an offside goal which on another day isn’t offside.
“But it’s still pre-season and it’s about game time more than results so I’m not going to moan about things.
“We’re trying to get a squad together to play these games and be as competitive as we can.
“We’d seven first-team players missing and you’d probably argue most of them would play most of the games.
“But last season we were fortunate and didn’t have many injury problems.
“Even though we couldn’t field our strongest side we’ve still competed in the two games.
“I don’t think Montrose or Kilmarnock have outplayed us, there are things to work on but the main focus just now is to be ready for the league.”
Lyons treble makes the difference
Montrose took the lead in the 11th minute when Lewis Milne’s corner from the right wasn’t cleared and Blair Lyons pounced to score from six yards.
Five minutes later the men from Angus added a second from the same source.
Another Milne corner from the right was flicked on and Lyons hooked the ball into the net at the back post.
Soon after it should have been 3-0 when Lyons teed up Graham Webster, but he could only fire against the left post from eight yards.
Lyons completed his hat-trick just after the half hour mark, netting with the rebound after home goalkeeper Joe Barbour had blocked Milne’s effort.
The closest Fraserburgh came in the first period was a Bryan Hay header on 38 minutes that was cleared off the line.
Although the Buchan side did have a credible penalty appeal in each half for handball turned away by referee Chris Fordyce.
On 65 minutes the Broch did score with Sean Butcher beating goalkeeper Aaron Lennox to Scott Barbour’s cross from the right to head home.
Webster netted Montrose’s fourth in the 90th minute with a neat finish from 12 yards before Butcher replied for the Broch from Jamie Maclellan’s low cross.
In the final seconds, Fraserburgh sub Zane Laird was red carded for an apparent stamp on Terry Masson.
