ASSISTANT manager Adrian Hanson admitted that Sauchie Juniors had another bad day at the office as they suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Forfar West End at Beechwood Park last Saturday.

The match had been billed as “must-win” in the build-up, but the Wee County side never recovered from the loss of an early goal.

And now Hanson has warned his players that their attitude must improve if they are to turn their season around.

He told Advertiser Sport: “It was another very bad day at the office for us. The performance was extremely poor.

"We’ve played Forfar three times over the last two seasons and not taken a single point off them. With no disrespect to them, we shouldn’t be losing to them.

"It’s not acceptable and some of the players need to have a long hard look at themselves. At this stage, there are a few boys who look like the Super League might be a step too far for them.

"Some of them are living off last season, where we didn’t do badly, but that was in a very average league. The Super League is a million miles better than that and there’s not one game you can pick out and be certain you’ll win.

“Some of the players’ attitudes leaves a lot to be desired. The buck ultimately stops with us because we pick the team and plan training, but there’s nobody in that squad who is hurting as much as me, Fraser and Dougie.

“A huge positive for us last season was that we had a settled side, and we knew we could go into battle with those guys knowing fine well that we would be alright.

"We don’t have that this year. We are in a battle now and we are lacking leadership. Brian Morgan drives boys on but he can’t do it all himself. We need to sort it out very quickly.”

Hanson insisted that he can empathise with the club’s supporters, who aired their displeasure during Saturday’s encounter, and says they are right to be unhappy with Sauchie’s recent displays.

He said: “It’s a massive task now to turn it round. Nobody is throwing the towel in but it’s a very sore point at the minute.

"When you’re standing in the dugout you can hear that the supporters aren’t happy and they are right. The performances haven’t been good enough.”

Sauchie travel to Dundonald Bluebell on Saturday looking to get their campaign back on track, and the management team are anxious to keep the squad united ahead in their quest to start climbing the table.

Hanson added: “We know it will be a hard game at Dundonald, and we won’t get anything for free. We need to all respond in the right way. It would be wrong to go into training and start falling out.

"We are all in this together, so our job on Saturday is to get back in the saddle and make sure we approach the game in the right way.”