FRASER DUNCAN saw his side secure their place in the first round of the Scottish Cup on Saturday but admitted the performance wasn’t good enough.

Sauchie defeated St Andrews United thanks to goals from Jack Docherty, Danny Smith, Ross Kavanagh and Kris Kelly to set up a trip to Gala Fairydean Rovers in the Scottish Cup first round.

Duncan told Advertiser Sport: “All I can really comment on the match is job done. That’s it. To get into the next round of the draw was the aim.

"Performance-wise, it was nowhere near good enough. We’ve scored the goals, took our chances and been clinical. That’s all I can really say about it.

“I think a lot of our players were way, way off it and we didn’t perform nearly as well as we could have done. But, again, we’re in the draw for the next round, that’s the most important thing and I said that to the players but they’ve got to make sure the performances are better.”

Asked if the performance was an improvement on the previous weekend’s defeat to Linlithgow Rose, Duncan said: “Not really. It’s a better result but the performance wasn’t good enough.

“It was poor, we didn’t pass the ball well enough. We sat back off St Andrews, let them play and gave them more time. We shouldn’t have done that. To be fair we’ve went and won the game, scored four goals.

“To lose the two goals was a disappointment but St Andrews came at us and credit to them. They maybe deserved a wee bit more from the game.”

Next up for Sauchie is a trip to Broxburn and Duncan insists the performance must be better.

“The last two games have not been good enough,” he continued. “We’ve got to go and up the performance this weekend and get three points to get ourselves back into it. It’s a very, very hard place to go. They’ve invested a lot of money in their squad.

“They’ve got some really good players in their team and we’ve got to go there on Saturday and take something from the game but we’ll have to put in a good performance for that.”

The club recently announced that assistant manager David Beaton would be departing and Duncan paid tribute to a great servant to the club.

Duncan said: “Me and Davy had a conversation on the Saturday night and then again on Sunday. He’s decided that he wants to spend more time with his family. He’s looking to go away at weekends.

“I wish him all the best, he’s been absolutely brilliant for me. He’s been a great learning figure, I’ve learnt a lot from him and picked up a lot from him.

"He’s been great for the club and he’ll always be welcome at any time.”