FRASER DUNCAN concedes winning the league is “out of their hands” as they lost 3-2 to Penicuik in the last minutes.

The Reds went two goals ahead at Beechwood courtesy of two strong headers from Ross Kavanagh but Penicuik quickly found their way back into the game.

The visitors bounced back to net three against Sauchie, complete with a red card for Lucas Williamson to put the final nail in the coffin.

“It was a hard one to take,” Duncan told Advertiser Sport. “We came out the Jeanfield game knowing that we needed to pick up maximum points at home.

“We had a few setbacks in training. Scott Davidson ruled out for the rest of the year, we went into Saturday’s game knowing it would be a challenge.

“I thought we still had enough of a squad to go and win the game but then Mark Smith pulls up in the warmup and had to drop out then Rhys Caves did his ankle in.

“We pop up and score two great headers from Ross Kavanagh and I thought we might have had enough in the tank to go and win the game.

“We had to try and see the first half out but we gave away a silly free kick which gave Penicuik to have a shot on goal.

“We dropped off as well, I think we’d run out of steam a bit and it’s caused us a bit of grief.”

Duncan took time to state his frustrations with the officiating on Saturday, which saw Sauchie concede two goals from offside positions.

He added: “I’m not going to go on about officials but the man for the goal is offside. For me, it’s a massive mistake from the linesman.

“It’s a major kick in the teeth for us there. For the second goal, the guy is about three yards offside and the linesman missed it again.

“To be honest, the officials were really poor on Saturday. For the two linesman to make mistakes like that, I’m not saying it’s cost us the game but if they do their jobs, we win 2-1.”

Sauchie now have two weeks off, vital time for them to try to return some injured players to squad.