Formartine United player-manager Paul Lawson was proud of his team in their 4-1 Scottish Cup loss to Queen of the South.
The Doonhamers took an early lead at Palmerston in the third-round tie with Stephen Dobbie getting a brace in the first eight minutes.
Garry Wood pulled one back before Lyndon Dykes made it 3-1 before half-time and Scott Mercer’s second-half strike wrapped up the tie for Queens.
Lawson said: “The last thing we said before the game was keep things tight but we gave away something early and were two behind after eight minutes.
“Full credit to the players. We got ourselves back into the game and were on top just before they scored the third goal.
“We can be proud of some of the things we did, but some of the goals could have been prevented.
“But against a quality side like Queen of the South we did some good things and someone of the quality of Stephen Dobbie can make a big difference in the game. It was a good learning curve for our players.
“It was a good experience for us to take forward because there were spells in the game where we were the better side, but their class showed in the end.
“We’ve got to hold our heads up with how we performed.
“You want to go as far as you can and we’ve reached the third round again after doing well in the last couple of years so we have to take the positives out of that.”