SAUCHIE Juniors boss Fraser Duncan was left fuming after his side's went down 4-2 to Broxburn at Beechwood Park last weekend.

The Wee County outfit had battled back from two goals down to level the scores through Gary McCulloch and Callum Robertson, but the visitors grabbed all three points with two late goals.

Broxburn had earlier been awarded a contentious penalty, but the Sauchie boss refused to pin the blame for the defeat on the referee, instead making it clear that he was not happy with his players' performance.

Duncan told Advertiser Sport: “It's a difficult one to take. Broxburn are a good side and they have some good players but that first half performance is one of the worst I have ever seen at Beechwood Park. I had to give the players a bit of a wake up call at half time and changed a few things. After the restart, we had the work rate and desire and we did really well to get ourselves back in the game. We did that and then we took our foot off the gas again and let them run away with the two goals at the end.

“In games you do get decisions that go against you but it should give you a bit of anger and desire to roll your sleeves up and get back into the game. We didn't do that. We felt sorry for ourselves and lost another bad goal. I am not going to have us feeling sorry for ourselves.

“Callum levelled it and we wanted to go and win the game but we have taken our foot off the gas. Some of the defending makes me want to get my boots back on. It is straightforward.”

The club have been dealt a blow with the news that Darren Cummings could miss the rest of the season, and Duncan revealed that several other players are also struggling with knocks as the season moves into its final stages.

He said: “Darren will be lucky if he is back before the end of the season which is a big blow for us. He has that spark which can get us something from games. This is the hand that we have been dealt which is difficult. Ant McTaggart, Jordan Allan and Ross Harkness are struggling too, so we are thin on the ground at the moment.”

Duncan says it is crucial that his players look to put things right when they travel to Fauldhouse on Saturday and made it clear that they cannot repeat last weekend's display.

He added: “I certainly hope it will give them a kick up the backside. I don't know what else it can really do. We should not be getting beaten by Broxburn at home. Next week we are going to Fauldhouse which is a really hard game so we need to have a bit more about us. If we are going to put performances like Saturday's in it is going to be a long hard run-in.”