ALBION ROVERS crashed out of the Petrofac Training Cup with a 3-1 defeat at Ayr United – and manager Darren Young was incensed at a first-half penalty award against his side.

Young, who was booked by referee Gavin Ross for protesting the decision, claims that the spot-kick should never have been given, and insisted that the timing of the award had an effect on the outcome.

“I didn’t really think there was much in the first half, we had some good chances then a couple of minutes before half-time they’ve got a penalty, and it was an absolute dive,” he said.

“The boy has actually turned round and said it was a dive, and in the furore I’ve ended up getting booked.

“I was standing there and I saw quite clearly that our guy never touched him, and I said to the referee ‘did you see any contact?’

“He was telling me to get away and I continued to berate him, which was silly on my part, but at the same time it’s wee things like that which change games and you end up going in at half-time one-nil down when their boy should have been booked.”

Alan Trouten scored the spot-kick for United before Nicky Devlin and Ross Caldwell added to their advantage. Ally Love struck a late consolation for Rovers, but Young was upset with how easily his side conceded.

“The other goals have come from set-pieces, which is disappointing, as we prided ourselves on our defensive record last season,” he said.

“It was probably our hardest test so far, and we can take positives from the performance.”

Elsewhere, Clyde went down 2-1 to Livingston at the Energy Assets Arena, with goals from Danny Mullen and Myles Hippolyte enough for the holders despite Michael Bolochoweckyj’s late consolation for Barry Ferguson’s men.

Queen's Park survived a scare to progress to the next round at the expense of Lowland League champions Edinburgh City at the Meadowbank Stadium, finally prevailing 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out after a goalless 120 minutes.