Sauchie youngster Ant McTaggart says they were unlucky to come away from their SuperLeague clash at Bonnyrigg with nothing to show for their efforts.

The midfielder felt they deserved to go in at half time behind, but was pleased with how his side responded after half time.

He believes Sauchie would have gone on to win the game if they had not been reduced to ten men shortly after Conor Kelly had levelled the scores.

McTaggart told Advertiser Sport: “We deserved to go in at half time 1-0 down. We never really got going and Fraser let us know that at half time. When we got it back to one each we were the better team and I think until we went down to ten men we looked like we were going to go on and win the game. The game changed on the sending off and the penalty.

“We played much better in the second half and we were disappointed not to take anything from it. When we equalised there was only one team in it, but Gary was unlucky to be sent off and that’s what changed the game. But that’s football, these things happen so hopefully we can come back from it.”

McTaggart admitted the squad are frustrated with their current form, but insisted they can get a result when they travel to face Linlithgow Rose on Saturday.

He said: “It’s very frustrating for us at the moment. We need to get a level of consistency going because we can’t go through the whole season with this happening every second week. Hopefully we can sort it out this week. It will be a hard game but we have already gone to Bo’ness and Newtongrange and won, so hopefully that will give us confidence and we can go and get something from it. We definitely think we can go there and bounce back.”

The 22-year-old recently made the step up to Sauchie’s first team squad and believes he has adapted well to life in the Super League.

He added: “I think I’m coping well. It’s very different to playing in the Under-21s. We won the league back-to-back and we were only getting beaten a couple of times a season, so it is a big step up to the Super League. The tempo is quicker and you have to be that bit fitter because you are playing against much better players. I did manage to score my first goal last weekend. I don’t score many but it was a good strike and hopefully I can chip in with a few more throughout the season."