IT'S not often you hear players showering praise on their manager, but Beith's Craig Brittain had only good things to say about his gaffer, Johnny Miller, after they secured a West of Scotland Cup semi-final place.

The former Dumbarton and Ashfield full-back looked to have fired the Ayrshiremen to a 3-2 victory over Pollok when his 25-yard shot flew in with little under quarter of an hour left to play in their hugely entertaining last-eight contest.

But controversy erupted in the final minute when whistler Barry Cook awarded Pollok a penalty after substitute Richie Newall's flick appeared to strike the hand of opponent Derek McCulloch, who was too close to have any hope of reacting.

There was little chance of Davie Turnbull looking this gifthorse in the mouth and, once all the commotion died down, he duly despatched the ball past keeper John Wight to send the tie into a penalty shoot-out.

But the vastly experienced No.1 was to have the last laugh as he pulled off saves from Shaun Dillon and Newall to earn Beith a 4-3 shoot-out triumph.Brittain said: "Johnny and his backroom team have crammed in so much experience at Junior level that he can write the script for most games we play in.

"He made a point before kick-off today to warn us that we must not react to any refereeing decisions and lose our cool.

"As a result, we did not allow the unfairness of it all to get under our skin and we came good in the penalty kicks."

Brittain earned the man-of-the-match plaudits from his manager for a quite exceptional performance, even though he himself was self-critical on account of both Lok's goals coming from his area of the pitch.

The first, with just four minutes on the clock, came when Calum Hardie scampered down the right flank before sending over a cross that midfielder David McGeown timed to perfection, sliding in to direct the ball beyond Wight.

Andy Reid headed in at the back post after a period of Beith pressure to make it 1-1. Martin McGarvey then threaded a pass into the path of Kenny McLean who skipped past Derek Wingate and coolly finished past the outrushing Kris Robertson to make it 2-1.

Pollok made another early breakthrough in the second half with McGeown planting home a header from Hardie's exquisite cross after the winger rounded Brittain.

However, the tough-tackling full-back was soon to make amends, firstly in an almighty goalmouth melee following a Lok corner kick where he twice cleared shots of his line.

Then, in the 76th minute, he beat two men and with his swinger' cracked an unsaveable shot high past Robertson.

He said modestly: "My only thought when the ball came to me was to get room for a cross but a couple of Pollok players closed the space down and forced me inside.

"Even then I just wanted to concentrate on getting my shot on target to give a chance of a rebound but luckily I caught the ball sweetly and it flew in."

Beith will now meet Cumnock in the last four after Stevie Farrell's men snatched a 2-1 success against Glenafton.

Meanwhile, Auchinleck Talbot and Rob Roy added another fixture to the glut of head-to-heads they are due to play over the coming weeks by winning their quarter-final jousts.

Rabs defeated Irvine Meadow 3-2 courtesy of a Jamie Docherty hat-trick, while Talbot defeated Vale of Clyde 3-1.

In the league, Joe Andrew was Arthurlie's hat-trick hero in a 3-0 defeat of Neilston that eased Lie relegation fears but condemned their local rivals to the drop.

And Benburb came from behind to defeat Vale of Leven 2-1 in the Central First Division basement showdown.