FRASER DUNCAN has called on his "naive" players to learn quickly in their bid to avoid relegation - before time runs out for his Sauchie side. 

The Reds blew a two-goal lead on Saturday as they were held at home by Linlithgow Rose to remain rooted in the relegation mire. 

Duncan has moved to bring in more experienced heads since his return in October - such as Alan Comrie and Jon Tully, who were both involved in the draw - but the boss admits he is still on the hunt for more. 

"A good experienced side in our league would have won that game and seen that out," Duncan told Advertiser Sport. "We need to find that and need to get a bit more experience in the team. 

"We need some more boys who have that guile about them and who will go about their business in a certain way. 

"We have just looked at the fixtures there and we are running out of them. I have said that to the boys, we can't just keep saying 'oh, we will learn from this and go next week'.

"It's got to end at some point because we need to make sure we are safe. There will be some huge games that will shape our season."

Duncan added: "I felt we should have controlled the game better but we are naive. We are very, very naive and very young and we need to be better.

"We have done the hard bit in the first-half and sometimes in the second half we have just got to go about our businesses in a different way.

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"We need to slow the game down and dictate the tempo to them but Linlithgow came out and dictated the tempo to us." 

Whistler Jordan Curran was at the heart of things when he dismissed Stewart Houston for an apparent handball midway through the second half.

The Reds had been leading 2-0 at that point - thanks to goals from Jon Tully and Craig Donaldson - but were pegged back via a Ross Allum penalty and Ruari Maclennan finish. 

READ MORE: Sauchie pegged back in battle to avoid the drop

Sauchie remain four points behind in the battle to avoid the drop from the Premier Division, having played more games than all but one of their relegation rivals. 

"The referee has made a mistake for the penalty," Duncan said. "It is not a penalty and my players have assured me that [Stewart Houston] has hit it with his head.

"The other players around about him have said the same as well and so has my goalkeeper.

"If playing the ball with your head on the ground is a penalty kick, then so be it. The referee has got that one wrong and I think the officials had a pretty poor game overall. 

"We have got to make our own luck and told the players after the game that the decisions we are making - when it comes to passing the ball out from the back - are not the right ones."