Brora Rangers boss Ross Tokely proud despite Kilmarnock defeat
Brora Rangers manager Ross Tokely remains proud of his players despite seeing their William Hill Scottish Cup run come to an end at Kilmarnock.
Brora had already made history by reaching the fifth round of the cup for the first time, but it proved one match too far for the Highland League side as they went down 4-0 at Rugby Park.
Tokely is keeping his head held high, though, after his side competed for 40 minutes before Killie ran away with the game in the second half.
'(I am) very proud,' he said. 'Pretty disappointed to (concede) four goals as an ex-defender but the guys went in there really disappointed.
'I didn't think it was a 4-0 game. We worked so hard to keep them at bay and compete with them, but they got to 43 minutes and scored a very good goal.
'It wasn't deflated at half time, but you could see they were disappointed but I thought in the whole game we competed really well.
'I'm very proud of the lads, it's been a great journey.'
He added: 'I cannot give the guys any stick.
'I thought man to man they were tremendous, the subs came on but I wish I could have put on the rest of the subs because they've been on the journey as well.
'We will learn from that and playing against Kilmarnock, who are the form side of the league, and Steve Clarke has them playing very well.
'Our journey came to an end today but there are a lot of positives and a lot of good memories from the run.'
Aaron Tshibola opened the scoring with his first goal for the club since arriving on loan in January, before Kris Boyd doubled the lead.
Eamonn Brophy and Stephen O'Donnell wrapped up a straightforward victory for Clarke's men, and he was pleased to see the ruthlessness in his players.
'We spoke at half-time that if we got the second we had to get the third and the fourth,' he said. 'That's how you respect your opponents; you keep going, don't switch off and don't stop, just keep going.''
He added: 'It was always going to be difficult, you have to give Brora a lot of credit, they came here and made it difficult and we knew they would.
'We just had to keep chipping away at them to get the goals. The one before half-time was a big bonus.'