SAUCHIE boss Fraser Duncan revealed he was proud of his players after a fightback which rekindled their Premier League title hopes.

Duncan’s side fell behind to Tayport in the first half, but pulled level early in the second half before a late penalty saw them take three points after dominating the previous 45 minutes at Beechwood Park.

And the manager insisted his players deserved praise for the work ethic they showed as they took a huge step towards promotion.

Duncan told Advertiser Sport: “When you go 1-0 down you can think it’s the same old story but the boys deserve a lot of credit. We changed a couple of things at half time and we were much better in the second half. It made the world of difference, and after half time, there was only going to be one winner.

“We lost Iain Syme in the first five minutes and a goal against the run of play, and it would have been easy to let our heads drop, but we didn’t do that. We rallied and the second half was one-way traffic. But it wasn’t a case of Tayport sitting back and letting us play – our players had to work hard for their chances and they did that.”

Duncan’s happiness with the result was tempered by the loss of full-back Iain Syme to injury just five minutes into his comeback, and the Sauchie boss admitted that the defender is likely to miss the rest of the season.

He said: “I think we can rule Symey out for the rest of the season. We pushed to get him back in against Tayport and we thought he was ready but we just need to give him time now. He might make an appearance in the last game of the season, and hopefully that will be to lift the league trophy.”

Duncan urged his side to take advantage of the position they are in by going on and claiming the East Premier title, with two wins set to all but secure their status as champions.

He added: “We have to push on now and make sure we take advantage this week. Wednesday and Saturday’s games are both massive but I think the Tayport game was the biggest one. It’s the one where I really thought we would have to graft and grind out the victory.

“We need to kick on from this. Three points is vital on Wednesday night against Dundee Violet, and then we have a very tough game at Arniston on Saturday. It’s a very tough place to go. We won the Premier League title there last time, but it will be a tough ask to do it again so we have to make sure we are fully prepared.”