FRASER Duncan was not disheartened by his side’s cup defeat to Kelty Hearts, despite a late collapse which saw them concede two goals in as many minutes.

Although they fell behind early, the Juniors matched the Super League’s runaway leaders for long spells, before a late Stephen Husband double saw them exit the East of Scotland Cup at the quarter-final stage.

And the manager reckons that on another day, his injury-hit side could have progressed.

Duncan told Advertiser Sport: “We made six or seven changes to the squad that played on Wednesday night so it was always going to be difficult, but to give the boys their due, they matched Kelty right up until late in the game.

"Their first goal came at a bad time but after that we had a few chances to get back in the game which on another day might have gone in the back of the net.

"To be honest, in the last five minutes our legs were gone from the amount of chasing we had to do.”

Duncan admitted that the most important aspect of last Saturday’s encounter was coming through the tie with no more injury worries ahead of what could prove to be a pivotal week in Sauchie’s season.

He said: “The most important thing for us on Saturday was getting through the 90 minutes with no other injuries. Iain Syme didn’t play and hopefully that will mean he’s back for this Saturday, and we took Steven Higgins off early so he will be ready for Wednesday.

"Darren Cummings is now fit again so he is back in the fold and it’s good to get players of his calibre coming back in.

"The next couple of weeks are going to be so hard for the players because some of them will be doing 10 or 12-hour shifts at work and then coming straight to play games in the evenings. But we are targeting twelve points from the four games.”

The Wee County side return to league duty on Wednesday evening as they face Bathgate in the first game of a double-header which could see them promoted back to the Super League by the close of play on Saturday, and Duncan says his players will be wary of the threat the men from Creamery Park pose.

He added: “Bathgate have a new manager in Jim Henderson so they have had a bit of a bounce recently and they will be fired up to pick up another three points on Wednesday.

"They have had a disappointing season by their standards so they will want to finish on a high and climb the table while they can.

"To be honest they did us a favour on Saturday by beating Forfar, because we now only need to win two games to seal promotion. But we have what it takes to beat them and we will be working hard to make sure we do that.”