RENFREW co-manager Colin Clark has demanded a response from his players after they fell to a 2-0 defeat against Thornton Hibs to crash out of the Scottish Junior Cup in the fourth round. 

A strike from Ben Anthony had the Fifers ahead before he wrapped the game up with just a few minutes to go. 

Renfrew were left to chase the game with nine men as goalkeeper Dale Burgess and Jamie Benton were sent off with the score at 1-0. 

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The game had already been beaten by the weather twice in recent weeks with the venue changed to Starks Park, home of Raith Rovers, in a bid to get it on. 

Anthony fired Thornton in front early on when he skipped by a challenge from Gregor Wylie and finished past Burgess. 

Burgess was then sent off just before the break to make Renfrew’s job a lot more difficult as he rushed out of his goal and brought down Garry Thomson. 

The Frew were struggling with 11 men so their chances of forcing even a replay looked slim after the first red card. 

The referee flashed the second red of the afternoon 72 minutes in as Benton was dismissed for an elbow which caught his man when competing for the ball. 

But nine man Frew refused to give up easy with Hibs keeper Ryan Linton forced into two fine saves to deny Paddy O’Keefe and Scott Morton before pulling off a great stop to deny David McKenna. 

As the West of Scotland Premiership side continued to push bodies forward, they were ultimately caught out at the back as Anthony sealed the tie from close range. 

Hibs will travel to Ayrshire on January 26 to face Kilwinning Rangers in the next round, who ironically Renfrew welcome this weekend in league business. 

And after the disappointing performance on Saturday, Clark is expecting more from his side this weekend. 

He said: “The red cards had a major impact on the game. It was the deciding factor. In the period in the first-half with 11 men, we had a lot of the ball and we were poor. We didn’t have the quality to play that final pass or put the cross in. 

“To be fair to the nine men, they fought their corner and worked really hard. We were disappointed with the way we played and made it difficult with the sending offs. 

“They’ve got one player up front who’s decent and the rest are ordinary. We were just poor on the day. 

“It wasn’t until we went down to 10 men that we started to pass the ball about well. With nine men and on a big playing surface, we ran out of gas but I couldn’t commend the nine men enough. 

“I don’t know where that performance came from because we’ve been playing the top teams recently and competing. 

“There’s no excuses for it. It wasn’t a lack of effort, it was a lack of quality on the day. 

“Now we’ve got to respond and we’ve got to have an anger. We’ve got to look to take it out on Kilwinning. 

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“I guarantee on Saturday that’ll we be at it. We’ll be going for it and will be aggressive. There will be a response after losing that cup tie. If there’s not, then there will be questions asked.”