SAUCHIE boss Iain Diack admitted he was pleasantly surprised with how quickly his young side has settled after their strong start to the season.

Despite having completely overhauled the squad in the summer by bringing in a number of new players, Diack’s side have won three of their last four, including defeating erstwhile Junior giants Linlithgow Rose.

And for the former Kilsyth Rangers player, the promise shown by the likes of Conor Langton and Darren Petrie is providing plenty of encouragement.

Diack told Advertiser Sport: “The last four games have been very, very pleasing and to get three clean sheets in four games is great.

“We have four teenagers in the team and four early twenties, so we’ve got a really young team.

“They are listening to everything we are asking and doing everything we’re asking. So, I am pleasantly surprised.

“In my experience, if you’ve got a lot of young players in a squad things normally take a wee bit longer. But, the guys have been brilliant and have done everything we’ve asked.”

Diack was speaking after leading a training session on Saturday following the cancellation of the club’s match against Selkirk.

The Beechwood Park outfit were set to face the Lowland League club in the first round of the Scottish Cup Qualifiers, before the late withdrawal of the Dumfries side due to their ongoing off field issues.

The cancellation left Sauchie without a match at the weekend, after attempts to find a late friendly opponent failed.

Despite the late call off, Diack insisted he was hopeful that Selkirk would soon find a solution to their issues, having already withdrawn from a number of fixtures this season.

He continued: “We had an inclination earlier in the week that the game might struggle to go ahead.

“It’s a shame and I feel for Selkirk. You don’t like to see any club in any kind of difficulty.

“I hope they can sort out any problems they are having and come through the other end.

“Hopefully they can get to a place where they can get a team on the pitch to represent the club.”

Sauchie had continued their excellent start to the season with a 4-0 win over Burntisland Shipyard last Wednesday in their opening league match.

Langton, Darren Cummings, and Willie Wells fired the Reds to their second 4-0 triumph in as many days, following their demolition of Arniston Rangers in the Alex Jack Cup.

Diack added: “On paper it was a difficult game, after they won their opening game in the Scottish Cup.

“We went there in difficult conditions and the pitch wasn’t the greatest and very tight.

“A lot of the things we worked on during pre-season and throughout training had to go out the window and we had to play a wee bit more direct.

“The boys did great in terms of their work rate and effort and were Absolutely brilliant. We have got wee bits of quality in the team such as Darren Cummings and Ryan Millar.

“It wasn’t the kind of game to play the ball on the deck. We didn’t just launch it aimlessly long, but we had to hit areas and use our pace.

“When they had the ball, we got at them and pressed them well. It was 0-0 at half time. But,in all fairness, we could have been easily 3-0 up by half time.

“In the second half, we managed to get our goals relatively early and that settled us down and we ran out comfortable winners.”