SAUCHIE stalwart Gary McCulloch believes his side are right in the thick of a relegation battle after their poor run continued with a 2-0 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Carnoustie.

A goal in each half from the visitors consigned the Wee County side to their fourth defeat in five games, eleven points above the drop zone, but having played five games more than Tayport and Fauldhouse, the current bottom two.

McCulloch admitted that Sauchie are now in real danger of dropping out of the Super League and says performances such as Saturday’s are simply not good enough.

He told Advertiser Sport: “There is always the chance that we could still go down. We have got to hope that other results go for us, and hopefully we can pick up a couple of points in the final few games.

“On Saturday, it just wasn’t good enough. We know ourselves that we are in a relegation battle so we need to work a lot harder to try and get out of it. As a team, we made far too many silly mistakes. Apart from that there’s not much more you can say about it really.”

The 32-year-old reckons that although displays have not been up to scratch, Sauchie have not had the rub of the green, after they passed up several good chances to score and were on the receiving end of some questionable refereeing decisions during Saturday’s defeat at Beechwood Park.

He said: “We have had chances which we should have scored. We are getting injuries. The referees, in my opinion, are not up to standard but that is not up to us. We have got to be better ourselves and take more of our chances.”

McCulloch is now hoping his team-mates can produce a positive reaction on Wednesday evening when they take on Kelty Hearts in the quarter-final of the Fife and Lothians Cup, and the former Bathgate man admitted the crucial game could make or break his side’s season as they continue to battle on two fronts.

He added: “Hopefully we can save our season by keeping our run in the cup going. It’s very important that we take the chance to get into the next round. Our main focus is on getting through that game on Wednesday and on bouncing back in the league against St Andrews on Saturday.”