Marvin Bartley hails Stenhousemuir side after Premier Sports Cup exit to Hearts.

Marvin Bartley hailed his Stenhousemuir heroes for reaching the Premier Sports Cup quarter finals after a 3-0 defeat to Hearts ended the Warriors’ remarkable unbeaten run.

The Ochilview Park side welcomed the Jambos to FK5 on Friday night on the back of 10 matches unbeaten since ex-Hibs midfielder Bartley took charge of the Scottish Championship newcomers in the summer.

The Warriors had previously knocked out Motherwell in the round of 16 but found it tough going against Wouter Vrancken - with goals from JJ Williams, Rogers Mato and Yan Dhanda sending the Tynecastle side to Hampden.

But Bartley was full of “pride” for his part-time team, who sit top of the Scottish Championship after winning promotion last season from the third tier.

"We turned up against a really, really good team,” boss Bartley admitted. “They punished us when we made mistakes. The second goal, we overhit a pass in a good area and all of a sudden the ball is in the back of the net. Rogers Mato on the left-hand side for them was fantastic. He is a top player with lots of pace.

"That's 10 games unbeaten and we're disappointed in there that we've lost to Hearts, that's shows how far Stenhousemuir has come. Hearts were seconds away from winning the title last season. They are a really coached team, they are athletic but also have ball players in there as well. The balance they have is really good.

"I just wanted us to get to half time 1-0 down. We could then regroup. But that's the pressure of playing such a good team, it goes to 2-0 and that made the next goal even more massive. Some of our set-plays in the first half were overhit. We had to be better regarding that.

“I'm just filled with pride and buzzing for the players to reach the quarter finals. No-one wants to lose games of football but we move on now to Tuesday.”