RAGING Allan Johnston admitted his players were “gutted” to be denied a Scottish Cup quarter-final after branding Hamilton’s Scott McMann a diver.

The Pars boss was left dejected at New Douglas Park on Tuesday night as his team were eliminated from the competition on a penalty shoot-out after being just three minutes away from a lucrative last-eight tie with Rangers at Ibrox.

Goalscorer Callum Morris was judged by referee Craig Thomson to have felled McMann but a frustrated Johnston accused the Accies man of “a blatant dive” and of “conning the officials” for what he described as “diving three feet to get a penalty” after reviewing the incident immediately after the match.

That took the tie into extra time and ultimately to a 12-yard lottery, where Athletic’s familiar failings from the spot this season returned as Rhys McCabe, Michael Paton and Gavin Reilly all had their efforts saved as the Premiership side progressed.

While admitting his team must learn to see games out, Johnston told Press Sport: “It looked like we were going through to the next round and that they’d run out of ideas. The boys are gutted, especially when they saw the penalty; they’re raging and rightly so. That’s part and parcel of football I suppose but it’s very frustrating.

“They weren’t causing us many problems. Obviously they threw a few bodies forward and I think there was a few dives in the box; Redmond goes down in the first half and there was a few occasions where it happened. The referee was strong for the majority of them, but the big decision where he gives a penalty kills us.

“The boys put so much effort into the game, in fact the last two games, and maybe that’s what we need to learn; that we need to see out games, especially against Premier League teams. We played really well for long periods, we broke well at times - although we can still pass the ball better - and I thought over the two games we were the better team.”

Former Pars striker and radio pundit Tam McManus has his say on the incident

The Pars were left to rue missed opportunities to kill off their opponents when leading in both matches and Johnston admits the monetary reward from the next round - which could have netted the club a six-figure sum had it been chosen for live TV coverage - added to their disappointment.

However, he insists his players can take heart from their displays over the two games and is determined that they will bounce back for the Championship run-in.

Dunfermline have this weekend off due to scheduled opponents’ Queen of the South’s involvement in the Irn-Bru Cup semi-finals, meaning that they will return to action with two tough trips to Hibernian a week on Saturday and to Morton the following midweek.

Although they sit 14 points adrift of fourth spot - and just five ahead of ninth - Johnston continued: “There’s nothing between the teams in the Championship and if we play like that and put in the effort, the commitment and the quality that we’ve shown over the last two games then I’m sure we’ll win more games than we’ll lose.

“It would’ve been a great tie and would’ve meant a lot to the club financially as well to play against Rangers at Ibrox, but I don’t think anyone can fault the boys over the last two games. Against Premier League teams, I don’t think there’s a big gap; I think we showed that last year, we’ve showed that this year and we’ve scored goals against them, so we’re just disappointed not to see the game out. We’ve not been great at penalties this year but a penalty shoot-out is a lottery anyway.

“We’ll give them a couple of days off; I think it’s well deserved because they’ve put in a lot of effort, and then we’ll get ready for another massive game against Hibs.We need to get our heads up and go again.”