A much changed and depleted Yoker Athletic side served up a hugely disappointing performance to tumble out of the West of Scotland Cup at Holm Park on Saturday.

Craig Winslow, player-manager Steven Reilly, John Harvey, Mark McManus and Gary Arbuckle were amongst those missing from the starting 11 and their experience was badly missed. With that said the second-half performance served up by those in the jerseys was far from good enough.

The game started rather tentatively with neither side really offering much of an attacking threat until some fine work by Greig Maitland resulted in the ball breaking to Shaun Kelly who fired superbly into the top corner from 18 yards to open the scoring after 11 minutes.

Yoker’s depleted line up took a further turn for the worst when winger Maitland was forced off through injury after a crude challenge which somehow escaped the referee’s attention. Davie Crerand and skipper Gary Bissland both then passed up good chances to add to the lead whilst Bryan Boylan and Chris McGowan went close for the visitors.

The Whe-Ho looked like they’d go in at the break with a lead but Stewart Sharkey’s naive challenge on Dean Agnew just before half-time gave Kilwinning the chance to level things from the spot. Liam Campbell dived the right way but was unable to keep Boylan’s effort out.

The second-half was a completely different story as The Buffs completely dominated against a Yoker side that seemed to lose all sense of shape and determination.

The visitors took the lead after Mark Maxwell’s sloppy pass in midfield conceded possession and left his side exposed to a break-away which saw Boylan pull the ball back for Agnew to fire home seven minutes after the restart.

Boylan then added his second and his side’s third when he met an unchallenged cross from the left to head past Campbell with 20 minutes remaining.

Maxwell then limped out of the action to add to Yoker’s injury woes.

Full-back Joe Coleman put the game beyond all doubt after waltzing down Yoker’s left all too easily to find himself clean through on Campbell before slotting home. Ben Lewis compounded Yoker’s misery when he added a 5th after another cross came in too easily and poor marking was further punished with five minutes to go.

This was without doubt Yoker’s worst performance of the season and gaffer Reilly will be hopeful that the long injury list will ease before Saturday’s league match at home to Kilsyth Rangers. Kick-off at Holm Park is 2pm.

Yoker Athletc: Campbell, Rankine, Sharkey, Henry, Hardie, Bissland, Bailey, Maxwell (Jones), Crerand, Kelly, Maitland (Cairns).