Falkirk end Darvel Scottish Cup dream to set up quarter-final clash with Ayr United

Darvel’s fairytale Scottish Cup run has come to end after a 5-1 defeat to Falkirk on Monday night.

Two goals in the space of a minute in the space of two first half minutes and three in ten second half minutes sealed the win for the League One side who will now host Ayr United for a place in the semi-finals.

John McGlynn’s men, who are currently second in the third tier, are now only one game away from Hampden in the competition they have won twice and reached the final of in 2015.

The journey, however, comes to an end for Darvel but it will be a campaign that will live in the memory thanks to one of the biggest shock results in Scottish football history.

The West of Scotland Premier Division club were aiming to be the first non-league team to reach the last eight in over 50 years.

But they were unable to match their heroics of three weeks ago when they dumped seven-time winners Aberdeen from the competition in the fourth round and completely fell apart after going down to ten men at 2-1 with 15 minutes to go.

Gary Oliver put the Bairns a goal up on the 22nd minute and the celebrations had barely ended when Callum Morrison made it two.

Falkirk continued to have the lion’s share of possession in the second half but the home side continued to create chances and they had a lifeline with half and hour ago when Ian McShane pulled one back.

The former Ross County and St Mirren player, who also had a spell at the Bairns, put a cross into the box that was turned into the net by Falkirk goalkeeper PJ Morrison.

The Bairns had the ball in the net again just moments later but the assistant referee put his flag up and the goal was ruled out for offside.

Darvel were inches away from an equaliser with 20 minutes to go but the ball was scrambled off the line and broke for a Falkirk counter as the game continued to be end to end.

Michael Kennedy’s men were then reduced to ten men when captain Chris McGowan was sent off for a second yellow card offence with 15 minutes left on the clock.

And the game was put beyond Darvel from the resulting attack when Liam Henderson glanced a header past Truesdale to make it 3-1.

Former Celtic kid Aidan Nesbitt, who was a thorn in Darvel’s side for the whole game, made it 4-1 with ten minutes to go before the final dagger was put through the heart of the hosts with two minutes remaining when Craig McGuffie make it five.