Fraser Duncan cut a frustrated figure after his Sauchie side were undone by a late equaliser in the 4-4 draw at St Andrews.

The Wee County outfit led three times but were pegged back on an entertaining afternoon in Fife, and the manager believes his side deserved the win, which would have gone a long way to securing their Super League survival.

Duncan told Advertiser Sport: “It is frustrating. It was one of those afternoons where you are just up and down. I honestly felt like we did enough to go and win the game. We are just not getting any luck though. They have scored a rasper of a free kick which is not what we expected after 90 minutes. Me and Davie thought that we thoroughly deserved to win the game but you can't give four goals away against a team like St Andrews who are battling down at the bottom. It was poor, slack defending and that is from the whole team.

“It felt like a defeat afterwards because we started the game really well. In the first 15 minutes we were all over them. We scored a great goal, and for them to come back and go in front before half time was crazy. We had a chat with the boys at half time and after that there was only one team in charge of the game. We have made it 4-3 with 20 minutes to go and I thought we would hold out but you can't give those goals away and expect to pick up results.”

Duncan admitted his side's survival hopes are now out of their hands and bemoaned their habit of capitulating despite playing good football.

He said: “I don't think it's in our hands because of the way we are playing at the moment. We can't seem to be able to put anything together and we can't seem to be able to hold onto a lead. We have never been played off the park. We are playing good football but we hit a panic button. Me and Davie are just praying for the end of the season to come so we can regroup and rebuild.”

The manager says his side are going into Saturday's potentially crucial clash with Linlithgow Rose in a bad place, with several key men unavailable, and he reckons it will take something special for Sauchie to claim the three points.

Duncan added: “Linlithgow is a hard one to look at. Jordan Tapping is suspended, Jon Tully will be struggling, Iain Diack will be struggling and Stevie Dolan is working. It is looking like I have got eight players available and that is a bad position to be in when you are coming up against the best team in the league. It is a huge task. It will be David versus Goliath on Saturday, except David has a couple of broken legs. We are just going to have to grin and bear it. All we can do is hope for the best.”