Sauchie manager Fraser Duncan admitted his side have a lot to learn after back-to-back defeats to Camelon and Musselburgh.

The Juniors lost 2-0 to their local rivals before going down 5-1 at Beechwood Park to the East Lothian side, and the manager acknowledged that his side’s inexperience had been a factor, writes Jamie Hall.

But Duncan backed his young squad to learn from the experience.

He told Advertiser Sport: “The Camelon game was a frustrating night right from the off. We went into the game thinking we could get something, and that would have meant a decent start to the season. I’m disappointed with the fact that we just didn’t do things the right way.

“We didn’t look after the ball well enough. We were a bit naive at times and our lack of experience showed on Wednesday. Against Musselburgh, we’ve made mistakes in the game that you just can’t make in this league. We need to take better care of the ball of a team and that is what we are going to be working on.

“I think it’s important that we take what we can from the Musselburgh game and learn from it. It’s about learning from what’s gone wrong and fixing it. I think with the youth that we have in our team at the moment that is going to be a big thing.

“The team are all young players and in an Under-21 or Pro Youth league you maybe get away with making those mistakes, where as in a Junior league you are playing against good pros who know how how to punish you.

“The Juniors game is full of ex-pros and and we are going to have to grow up quickly. We are going to have to learn from it and push on, making sure we right those wrongs.” Despite decisions going against his side in both games, the young manager urged the Sauchie supporters to lay off the officials.

Duncan said: “We can’t blame referees all the time. We need to get off their backs a bit, and that includes the fans. We have to give the young lads a chance and we are not going to be able to do that when referees are makind decisions based on what supporters are saying.

“The fans just need to get off the officials’ backs a bit, as we all do. I have been trying not to say anything to them because at the end of the day, they make the decisions and that is it. They aren’t always right and the standard of refereeing has sometimes been poor, but if we don’t have referees there we can’t play the game.” Duncan revealed that Connor Kelly would return to the side for Saturday’s visit to Newtongrange, and he hopes a change of scene can inspire his youthful squad to bounce back.

He added: “We are looking forward to getting away from home and getting the freedom to play without pressure. We need to concentrate on our team. It has been a case of back to basics in training this week, focusing on getting organised and disciplined. A big advantage for us is that Connor Kelly is back fit.

“He struggled on Tuesday night but he trained on Monday so he will be involved again. We need to improve the service to him. We have a strikeforce there who will score goals if we can get the service to them.”