Sauchie Juniors star: We have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get back to our winning ways

DARREN CUMMINGS says Sauchie Juniors have to stop feeling sorry for themselves and start getting back on the winning trail following last Saturday’s defeat to Kennoway Star Hearts.

The Beechwood Park side slipped to just their second league defeat of the season, and Cummings reckons the loss can be attributed to a hangover from last week’s Scottish Cup exit at Glenafton.

But the striker urged the whole squad to put that behind them and focus on winning the East Premier title.

Cummings told Advertiser Sport: “We just never got going to be honest. I think a few of us were feeling sorry for ourselves after going out of the cup last week but we needed to bounce back from that and we didn’t.

“We got off to the perfect start when I scored. I don’t know if we got complacent after that but we just seemed to collapse towards the end of the first half. We got a kick up the backside from the manager at half-time which was exactly what we deserved, and we were much better after that.

"To be honest, it could have finished 4-4. Ryan Millar scored, Steven Higgins hit the bar and I hit the post so I do think that with a bit more luck we could have got the result. But there are no excuses for that first-half performance.

“We have only lost two league games all season but they have been against our biggest title rivals, Forfar and Kennoway. Those are the games you have to win and we haven’t done that. We have let ourselves down in those games.

"It’s so disappointing.”

The Juniors need just seven wins from their final 12 games to secure the title and an immediate return to the Super League, and Cummings is determined to achieve the feat in the smallest amount of games possible.

He said: “We have 12 games left and if we win seven of them we will win the title, but we want to do it in the next seven games.

"We want to finish the season strongly and make sure we do win that title, because we are the favourites and have been since the very start.

"To be honest, I expect us to do it but we can’t let our standards slip.”

Next up for Sauchie is a trip to face Haddington Athletic, against whom captain Brian Morgan suffered a broken leg earlier this season, and Cummings says that although tensions will be heightened as a result, they have to put the incident out of their minds and focus on getting a positive result.

He added: “We need a big reaction on Saturday.

"There is a bit of previous because of what happened with Morgy, but we have to put that out of our minds and be professional.

"We know they will give us a very hard game because they are a difficult side to play against. But we will be up for it, especially after the Kennoway result.”