IF Beechwood Park was the scene of late ecstasy, then it was a very different mood for the Big Sauchie in the Borders.

While the Juniors were enjoying another fine win in front of the Wee County crowd, Martin Mooney’s Reds were toiling to defeat in the Football Nation Qualifying Cup to Gretna 2008.

It means the injury hit East of Scotland side are yet to pick up a victory since the season began in earnest, losing their last three games.

And assistant coach Darren Cummings revealed some “home truths” were spoken in the dressing room after the 3-2 reverse to Chris Humphrey’s Anvills.

He told Advertiser Sport: "We never turned up and it was another lacklustre performance from the boys. They are a good side and we have ability but we aren't showing it.

"It feels like we are making excuses every week and it is early on but we aren't doing the basics right. We've got to work hard and we aren't doing that right now.

"The ability in the dressing room is not in question but I was questioning their desire at half time. It's not good enough and I wasn't afraid to tell them that.

"I said to the boys in the dressing room that in terms of ability it is probably the best team I have seen at Sauchie in years.

"But you question their heart and their desire to do the dirty things and to do them well.

"A few home truths got told on Saturday and we upset a few people but it had to happen.

The Reds struggled to adapt to the conditions from the off at Raydale Park and found themselves behind after 15 minutes when David Reynard opened the scoring.

Mark Finlayson, who returned after injury, soon levelled against the run of play before goals from Callum Duke Smith and Ryan Rogers gave the hosts an unassailable lead.

David Cross slotted home a penalty in the 96th minute but the game was long gone by then.

"It's a long trip," the Sauchie veteran continued. "You're two hours on the bus and then you do a warm-up and everything looks great. But from the off we weren't right.

"The longer the first half went on the worse it got. The conditions weren't great and the park wasn't ideal, but it was the same for both teams and we didn't adapt to it.

"Looking at the two teams, the ability we had to their ability was night and day but we just didn't work hard enough.

"It wasn't by ability but desire. They had more than us and you can have all the ability in the world but if you've got no desire then you won't get anywhere."

Sauchie host current second placed Tranent Juniors at Beechwood this weekend and Cummings is demanding his side show a reaction to their latest defeat.

He said: "We need to win on Saturday and it's against Tranent. We've put ourselves under even bigger pressure to perform and turn up against a good team who are going to come with intent.

"If we give them time to settle, then we are going to find ourselves adrift at the bottom of the table.

"We're going to get left behind and there's no easy games in this league.

"It's my first rodeo in management but we just need to find a way to sort it."