SAUCHIE boss Fraser Duncan says a poor first-half performance cost his side as they lost out to Super League rivals Bonnyrigg at New Dundas Park

The manager felt his side only had themselves to blame but believes they could have taken something from the game at the death.

The 32-year-old admitted his side’s lack of consistency was a cause for concern and revealed he is keen to add to the squad.

Duncan told Advertiser Sport: “It was a disappointing result in the end. We knew coming into the game that they were in good form. We performed very poorly in the first half which was very frustrating.

"We gave ourselves loads to do but to be fair, they worked really hard in the second half and got ourselves back into the game. But we have then gone and given away a stupid goal and gone down to ten men, and we were right up against it.

"To give the boys their due, they battled back and we could even have nicked an equaliser at the end but when you look at the chances they had, they could have scored five or six.

“We seem to be lacking a bit of quality in the squad, and we are going to have to find that from somewhere. Overall, I think we are a young, inexperienced side. We are working hard but we are lacking in consistency.

"We seem to take too long to get ourselves going. I would like to see us going out and taking control of games right from the start.”

Duncan was again delighted with the performance of top scorer Conor Kelly, who netted a brace to give the Juniors hope, and says his young striker will keep banging in the goals.

He said: “It might be two penalties, but to give him his due, he has stepped up and stuck them away well. His goal tally is just going up and up at the moment and it is a real shame we can’t seem to keep them out at the other end.

"He is working hard up front and I think he will keep scoring throughout the season.”

Sauchie’s next game is a trip to Linlithgow Rose and Duncan admitted there will not be harder test for his side this season.

He added: “It never gets any easier. We are going to their place and to be honest we have got to sharpen up if we are going to get anything.

"We need to be sharper with our passing and we have to speed our game up a bit.

"You just never know what is going to happen on a Saturday with us. We just have to go there and hope it clicks on the day.”