AFTER suffering the longest summer of his life, Sauchie legend Darren Cummings is out to make amends for last season by firing the club to promotion.

The striker, who returned to the club last term after a brief stint away at Bo’ness, suffered the agony of being sent off early on as his side went down 5-0 to Lochee United in the Super League playoff before eventually succumbing to relegation.

Now, after marking his return to action with a goal in the 5-0 win over Kennoway last weekend, the Beechwood Park hero is more determined than ever to make up for lost time. 

Cummings told Advertiser Sport: “It was great to get back out there and be involved again after my suspensions and injury.

"We had a team night out after the win as well so it all helps to keep the morale high and hopefully we can keep our run going.

“It was nice to immediately get back among the goals as well and it was only my third touch on the pitch. I had one to control the ball, one to beat the man and then one to chip the keeper, so I was delighted with it.

"I was joking with the lads that I didn’t mean to take the shine off their efforts with a comeback goal, but I will take it."

He added: "I made a fool of myself getting sent off in the playoff and I had a long summer thinking about it. I felt like that meant I had to come back this year and put that right.

"The club had shown a lot of faith in me to broker the deal to get me back from Bo’ness, and I feel like I let them down in a big way with the sending off against Lochee.

"They always say it never works out the same if you go back to a club, but hopefully I can disprove that theory this season.

"Last year, I was carrying a bit of weight and hadn’t played a lot of football so it was no wonder that I picked up injuries.

“I considered chucking the game altogether after constant injuries and then the sending off and our relegation, but after a long think, I decided that I just needed to dust myself down and go again to try to fire this club back to where they belong in the Super League.”

Cummings has been mightily impressed with the summer rebuild at the club by gaffer Fraser Duncan, and he believes they now have the right mix within the group to be challenging for immediate promotion back to the Super League.

Downfield are the visitors to Sauchie this weekend for a top-of-the-table clash and the club’s talisman sees it as a chance to make a statement of intent with another victory.

Cummings said: “We won’t get carried away with results so far, but we have a nice blend in the squad of youth and experience, so I honestly believe we will take a lot of stopping this season.

"We have a good spirit within the squad and everyone is pulling in the same direction so the feel good factor is definitely back at Beechwood.

"We are desperate to keep this run going now and Downfield at home on Saturday is a chance for us to that. I think they will have to fear coming to our place because of the goals we are scoring"

Cummings added: "The manager has given us a licence to go forward and get goals and the boys are certainly delivering at the moment.

“We are a Super League team playing in the Premier as far as I am concerned. We know there will be some tough games ahead and it certainly won’t be easy in this division, we really should be looking to win most of our games.” 

The former Stirling Albion star has been delighted with the club’s flying start to the new campaign, but admits last weekend’s emphatic 5-0 win over Kennoway could have been very different if not for the first half heroics of goalkeeper Greg Maitland.

Cummings said: “We have started the season on fire with three solid wins and we are flying at the moment. We had two very good wins to start off with, but we knew the Kennoway game would be a tough one and so it proved.

"We made things hard for ourselves in the first half and we had Greg Maitland to thank for keeping a clean sheet with some brilliant saves in a busy 45 minutes for him. 

“As soon as Ryan Millar scored on the stroke of half time, we were always in control of the game from there on out.

"We have been on the reverse of that kind of result in the Super League last season where we dominated a game, couldn’t score and then fell to defeat later in the game, so it was nice to now be the ones able to inflict it on another team.

"We were ruthless when the chances came along and we really hit them where it hurt.”