Stirling Albion's Scottish Cup hopes ended with a 2-1 defeat at Renfrew on Saturday, a result that left manager Steven Whittaker frustrated with his side's display at New Western Park.
The Binos went into the match as favourites against the Lowland League West side, but sloppy defending and poor finishing, combined with the difficult conditions caused by Storm Boelo, allowed Renfrew to secure a place in round three.
Billy Hutchison's late goal proved to be nothing more than a consolation for Stirling, whose players and coaching staff were booed off by the travelling supporters at full-time.
Whittaker criticises performance
Whittaker did not hold back in his assessment of the defeat, acknowledging the anger of the fans who made the trip on a filthy afternoon.
He said: "It's horrible and I'm disappointed, the boys understand that it has to be better than that.
"We've been poor at coming to grounds like this and away to teams a level below us and we keep finding ways to make the game so hard for ourselves over the 90 minutes, which is what happened again today."
The Stirling boss pointed to an avoidable set-play goal as the opening blow, following a missed chance when the score was still 0-0, and a "silly second goal from absolutely nowhere" after half-time.
Forced changes no excuse
Stirling were without two key defenders for the match, with Callum Crane missing and Lee Hamilton only fit enough for the bench after illness.
Despite those absences, Whittaker offered no excuses and called on other squad members to raise their levels.
He said: "We missed Callum Crane today and Lee Hamilton was on the bench due to illness and he was touch and go whether he was even going to be stripped and wasn't in a condition to play.
"It was just forced changes on our side, but the squad has to realise that our performance can't look like that when we miss key players, we have to find a way to do better when those guys are missing."
