Kelty Hearts: Michael Tidser on Queen's Park Premier Sports Cup tie

The 'Maroon Machine' conclude their Group C matches at Queen's Park this afternoon staring at an exit from the competition following the midweek loss to Peterhead.

That defeat to the Blue Toon, which came after last Saturday's momentous win over top flight Hibernian, and a draw at Elgin City in their opener, was a disappointment for Tidser, who said: "Every game, every training session, I've always been the same as a player, you try and strive to be better, regardless of what age you are.

"It's important they do that. They need to learn.

"They need to be hurting because I don't like losing, I don't like drawing. I want to win games of football.

READ MORE: Kelty lose out to Blue Toon and face Premier Sports Cup exit

"On Saturday, I wanted to beat Hibs, and it proved that we did, but that's all forgotten about now because the games that you're expected to go and compete, and go and win, mean more to me.

"You want to win every game of football, regardless of whether it's a top SPL side, or a bottom of League Two side, or lower league sides, you want to win everything.

"It won't be any different. I think even if we'd got a point and potential penalties against Peterhead, and we can get the two points, you've got a wee chance on Saturday, but it's not a dead rubber for me.

"It's one week away from the first league game. If you want to do well and play in that team, you need to be at it. It's as simple as that."

READ MORE: End of an era as Ian retires after almost five decades at Kelty Hearts

Kelty captain Tam O'Ware, who had a spell coaching with this afternoon's opponents last season, said Tuesday's display wasn't acceptable on the back of their efforts against the Hibees.

"Overall, I don't care what level you're at, you can't go and beat Hibs on Saturday and then, come Tuesday night, you can of course get beat, but to have a drastic change in performance isn't acceptable," he said.

Kelty Hearts stunned Hibernian with a 1-0 win at home last Saturday. (Image: David Wardle.)

"We've set standards. I've got standards here, the manager's got standards, and obviously it's a new squad, so we need to make sure that stuff like that isn't going to be accepted.

"You'll get punished this year in League One if you want to play like that.

"It's probably the worst I've felt after a game for a few years, for whatever reason that is, I don't know.

"We gave ourselves an unbelievable chance after Saturday, an historic day for the club, and then we come out and put a performance like that on. It's not acceptable.

"Saturday, of course, is maybe irrelevant in terms of this competition, but there's a lot we can work on on Saturday for the campaign starting the week after."

Team-mate and forward, Craig Johnston, added after the Peterhead match: "It was maybe just a wee bit lack of quality, which we have got, but we didn't show it tonight. Then maybe you get a bit desperate and you're trying to throw things at it.

"Everybody puts in the effort, but you get games like that, where a team will come down and be hard to play against. With them getting the goal, going 1-0 up, it makes it harder because they can sit in. They don't need to go forward.

"It made it harder for us. They just closed all the gaps and spaces and, like I say, we didn't have that wee bit of quality that we usually do to get ourselves back in the game.

"You get a result like that on Saturday, and that's what the boys are saying - you can't not be high after that on Saturday, and then we're all in there tonight really disappointed because we had a chance and we kind of threw it away.

"We could've went to the last game with a chance of going through, which would've been really good for us, but instead we've came away with the wrong result tonight, so it's disappointing.

"We'll go there on Saturday and we'll be able to play against a team in the league above, so that'll be a good test for us, and get us ready for the start of the season."