DARREN CUMMINGS insists Sauchie “didn’t do themselves justice” as they crashed out of the League Cup following a 5-1 loss to Bo’ness Athletic.

The Reds made the trip to Bo’ness hoping to progress to the next round, but Bo’ness had the upper hand from the first whistle.

The assistant manager said their opponents were the far superior team on the day, with Sauchie miles off their best.

He said: “We knew it would be a hard game but we played them last year and got a good result so we went into it feeling a bit confident.

“They came out the blocks early doors and caught us off guard. They could’ve been two or three up really early and they didn’t let up.

“They didn’t give us a minute to settle. They got their breakthrough and it was just attack after attack. We couldn’t keep up with their pace.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice at all, we couldn’t implement our game plan whatsoever. We gave away a penalty for the second goal and it just went from bad to worse.”

Sauchie clawed a goal back just before half time, going into the break sitting at 2-1 Bo’ness.

The goal came from sub Kieran Anderson, who came on to replace Ross Balmer.

“We stuck Kieran on and we got an instant reaction,” Cummings added. “He came on, got the ball, turned, rolled the defender and he got us back into the game a wee bit.

“We got a goal, we tried to regroup at half time and then come out the break and get at them. But, unfortunately, it just didn’t materialise.

“When we brought Kieran on, we wanted to try change things up a wee bit. We slipped Brian Morgan into right back.

“It was a capitulation in the second half, it was even worse than the first. Just wasn’t our day at all.”

Sauchie host Musselburgh Athletic at Beechwood on Saturday as they look to see off the rest of the league campaign over the coming weeks.

Cummings and the team will be hoping for a big reaction to the result at Bo’ness.

“It’ll be another tough game for us,” he added. “The boys have done well for us this season, we’ve got a good squad there.

“It’ll be a tough game on Saturday but we know we’ve got the quality.”