Crossgates Primrose.....................1 Sauchie Juniors.............................2 East of Scotland Premier Division

SAUCHIE boss Fraser Duncan was delighted his team were able to play after two weeks off – and even more delighted to get another win.

With the team's last two games being called off due to the weather, Duncan was relieved his side were able to play and carry on the momentum that has seen them rocket up the table.

Two first half goals were enough to see off Crossgates despite a penalty in the 88th minute for the home side causing a little scare.

He told Advertiser Sport: "When you've got momentum, the worry with the two week lay-off is are we going to be as sharp when we come back, but Saturday was superb; the lads were brilliant.

"That was a very hard park to play on. It was a tough game, a hard-fought match, but our boys were brilliant, especially in the first half."

After Crossgates scored their goal, they had another chance to level the game but Duncan praised his full team for their efforts in securing the three points.

He continued: "We've had some brilliant last ditch defending, Chic Bell in goals has pulled off a great save as well.

"The most important thing was the three points, I said that to the boys after the game. On Saturday all over the park you could see our boys were right at it and they deserved the three points.

"[We're] delighted to get ourselves up the table. We dropped points at the start of the season when we were finding our feet but we've found our feet now.

"We're sitting where we are for a reason, we dropped points when we shouldn't have dropped points, and that's football but what the guys are very determined and adamant to do now is push up the table.

"We don't want to be going into March, beginning of March at the bottom half of the table, we want to be in the top half knowing that if you put a run of games together in March and April you can find yourself up the top of the table.

"I certainly think I've got a squad here good enough to do that. We've definitely got a squad good enough to be competing up the top half of the table.

"We need to keep putting points on the board as we've been doing and take it from there."

Sauchie were due to play Tynecastle on Boxing Day however the managers of both clubs agreed to rearrange the fixture to December 29 to allow their players a well-deserved break with their families.

Duncan continued: "To ask boys to come away on Boxing Day, which is some of their only days off, is just unrealistic so I'm quite happy that Tynecastle have swapped the game. Their manager was exactly the same, so we're delighted with that.

"We might have looked at it differently if there was fans allowed in but because there's no fans there's no point in playing on Boxing Day."