Rangers cup tie was the penalty Hamilton Accies paid, says defender

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Dan O’Reilly reckons two sloppy penalties against Stranraer ultimately cost Hamilton Accies a money-spinning Premier Sports Cup clash with Rangers.Accies drawing 1-1 at home to Queen’s Park on Saturday sent them out of the competition, even with the bonus point for winning the shoot-out.But the Irish defender says they went out on a goal-difference of one, which saw Queen of the South handed a last-16 trip to Ibrox next month.And he says that points to a 5-2 win over League Two side Stranraer, where keeping a clean sheet would have seen Accies progress.He said: “If we had won we would have qualified.

Straight after the game we saw it was one goal, so if we hadn’t conceded against Queen’s Park or took the one-on-one that we had, it would have been different.“At the time, when you beat Stranraer 5-2, you think it’s good to get a win.

But after Saturday’s game you think ‘if we didn’t concede the two penalties we’d be through and playing Rangers’!“It really is fine margins, and it goes to show you that games from the past can come back to bite you.”O’Reilly reckons the competition’s structure doesn’t give much room for error, but says Hamilton can still take confidence into their Championship opener at home to Morton on Saturday.He said: “It’s disappointing, especially after going 1-0 up.“We were in control of the game, and 1-0 is a dangerous scoreline but our first-half performance was really good and in the second half we didn’t reach those same levels, so we invited pressure.“To go out on goal-difference overall, after Saturday’s game it kind of felt like a bit like a loss, but we just turn our focus now to this week, and the most important thing is the league.“We went out with eight points, and after the Dundee game we