SAUCHIE JUNIORS extended their unbeaten run to six games over the weekend as they beat Crossgates Primrose 2-0.

It wasn’t pretty, at times, but the Reds dug deep to go two goals up before the break before excellent defending restricted the visitors to just a couple of shots in the second half.

Goals from Jack Thomson and Ross Kavanagh secured three points for Sauchie, who have turned their fortunes around after their shaky start to the season.

Fraser Duncan was pleased with the scoreline despite some concerns around the overall performance.

He said: “Crossgates is a difficult side, sometimes the games can be really sticky against them.

“We’ve spoken to the guys before and we told them how important it is to get three points and keep a clean sheet and that’s what we’ve done.

“There was no airs and graces about our performance. First half, we were pretty poor. We didn’t keep the ball well, our recycling wasn’t sharp enough, our ball in the final third wasn’t good enough.

“To go into the break and be 2-0 up is excellent to be honest, so it shows how we’ve dug deep and worked and defended really well.

“I asked the guys to keep the ball better in the second half and I think we did that pretty well, we constricted Crossgates to maybe one or two shots.

“Most of the play was from us and I think they started to tire, but we didn’t tire. The most important thing was three points and a clean sheet and we’ve done that today.”

Sauchie found the breakthrough midway through the first half as the Crossgates keeper handled the ball and carried it out behind the goal line, resulting in a Sauchie corner.

The corner went short before being blasted into the box by Sauchie, meeting the foot of Jack Thomson to tap it in.

A brilliant piece of play from Sauchie saw Ross Kavanagh race through on goal, with his second goal certainly helping to settle the ship for Sauchie.

Duncan added: “A third goal was what we were always chasing and we said that at half time. The first goal is a great ball in and Jack’s there to tap it in.

“The second goal is a great bit of work and Kav is there to finish it. We’ve still got a few players still to hit their peak.

“As a team, we’ve been performing really well – the last few games have been really difficult away from home and we’ve got six points from them.

“The next three games are at home, so we need to really header down and get nine points from them and we’ve already got three today.

“It’s vital to get six points over the next couple games. We’ll need to play better than we did today but we defended.

“The second ball really steadied us a bit and excellent defending in the second half saw us out.”

Sauchie host Kinnoull next at Beechwood on Saturday, October 21 at 2.30pm.