SAUCHIE JUNIORS progressed to the next round of the East of Scotland League Cup on Saturday, in a hugely convincing 4-1 win over Dundonald Bluebell.

The Reds put in a dominant first half performance at Beechwood to leave the visitors with no way of bouncing back in the second half.

Danny Smith opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Mark Smith was brought down in the opening minutes.

Dundonald brought things level as they scored against the run of play, but Sauchie refused to lie down and Smith re-established his side's lead shortly after.

Just three minutes later, Ross Hutchison slotted home Sauchie's third while Mark Smith added a fourth to round off a special first half for Sauchie.

Assistant manager Darren Cummings was delighted with his side's showing, insisting this performance has been a long time coming.

"It was brilliant," Cummings said. "The last few weeks, we've been knocking at the door of some good performances, we've just not been putting the ball in the net.

"On Saturday, we were bang at it right from the off. Inside 20 seconds, the keeper took down Mark Smith and Danny slotted home the penalty.

"That set the tone, from there we were absolutely ruthless in the first half. We lose a goal against the run of play but the boys stuck with it, kicked on and we played some lovely stuff on Saturday.

"We were at it, we were relentless and the boys got their rewards on Saturday and they were faultless in that first half."

With the game put to bed, Sauchie made some changes at half time, bringing off Ross Hutchison and Andy Kay.

The message at half time was clear: restrict Dundonald and don't give the ball away and that's precisely what Sauchie did.

Cummings continued: "They were brilliant. The tempo died in the second half but the game was won in the first half.

"We gave nothing away and it was a real professional performance, a great day at the office for us."

With that, Sauchie progress through to the next round of the League Cup, which is the club's last chance at silverware for the season.

Cummings insisted Sauchie will be looking to throw everything they have at it in the hopes of lifting the cup this season.

He added: "If we didn't win on Saturday, that was our season over. They knew that and they knew that we wanted to keep our season going.

"This is last chance saloon for us and the boys were excellent, every single one of them.

"That performance has been coming for weeks now."