Glenrothes FC: Co-manager John Martin says his team must learn from sucker punch of conceding injury time goal to lose cup tie

The East of Scotland Premier Division visitors took the lead against their first division opponents on 16 minutes when a lovely through ball from Lloyd Fiddler was smashed into the roof of the net by George Hunter.

The scoreline remained 1-0 for Musselburgh at half-time, before Glenrothes netted the equaliser on 57 minutes when Graeme Walker headed in a fantastic Lea Shiv cross.

The match appeared to be ending in a stalemate until Musselburgh dramatically won it three minutes into injury time through Nathan Evans’ strike.

Glens’ gaffer Martin said: "It was heading towards extra time and myself and Kev (fellow co-manager Kev Smith) were planning our subs and then they hit us with a sucker punch with the last kick of the ball.

"We were trying to push for a winner instead of having a bit of game management and seeing it out to extra time. They’ve broken away and the boy’s scored a good goal at the front post.

"We’ve said to the boys that they need to learn from it.

"But we made a few changes and played well against a good side from the league above which shows we’ve got depth in the squad.

"We held our own and it shows we’re not far away.”

Martin believes his team improved as the game went on.

He added: "I said to the boys at half-time to just believe in the way we wanted to play, push them back instead of sitting in.

"Sometimes in the first half we became a back six, it was like we were hemmed in and couldn’t really get out.

"But in the second half we played a lot better and our shape was a lot better.

"We were both having a go at each other and the game was starting to open up later on.”

Glenrothes, fourth in the first division with 36 points from 16 games, host local rivals Kirkcaldy & Dysart – seventh with 32 points from 20 fixtures – in the league this Saturday with kick-off at 2.30pm.

The teams met on league duty at Alex Penman Park as recently as February 11, with Glenrothes winning 5-2.

Martin added: “We are in a strong position but we’ve still got to win the games in hand and get the points on board.

"We played Kirkcaldy not that long ago so we know what they’re all about and they kind of know what we’re about so it should be an entertaining game.

"In the last game it was maybe even but we probably dominated the second half and were the better side.

"If we play how we played in the second half of the last game against them I don’t think we should have any problems.”