Duncan Sinclair watched his Lie side stroll into the third round of the Scottish Junior Cup with a comfortable 3-0 win against Forres Thistle and admitted he was not happy with the performance despite the one-sided scoreline.

Hard to please Sinclair believes his side perhaps showed some complacency against the North Region side. 

Arthurlie did start well with Jamie Docherty going close with just eight minutes on the clock and they did take the lead 10 minutes later with James Marks firing home from close range after his initial header was spilled by Forres keeper Daniel McLeod. 

Del McNab doubled Lie’s advantage 10 minutes before the break with the visiting keeper at fault. 

Jamie Gray looked to have added the third with one of his trademark free-kicks but his effort came rattling back off the bar as Lie went in two up. 

Arthurlie did continue to dominate after the restart but Sinclair’s men lacked a cutting edge that should have turned their superiority into goals with Josh Payne failing to find the target after trying his luck from distance. 

David Reid added the third in the dying minutes with a simple tap in as Sinclair’s men cruised into the third round. 

Despite the lethargic display, the home side were never in any danger but the boss insists that kind of performance will not be tolerated.

He said: “I don’t think we played too well If I’m being honest. Too many players didn’t show up and thought it was going to be too easy. We were quite poor and dropped to their standard. Our passing wasn’t sharp enough and our movement off the ball was poor. 3-0 sounds a comfortable win and it was, but at the same time we could have played better and scored much more goals. 

“I thought there was a bit of complacency there. They turned up thinking it was going to be easy and then made it hard for themselves. Forres didn’t make it difficult for us, we did that ourselves.”

While he was quick to lament their effort over the 90 minutes, Sinclair still acknowledged his side’s recent results, saying: “In terms of getting first back-to-back wins this season and building some momentum, it’s a positive result.

“We have now scored 10 goals in our last two matches while only conceding one so while I wasn’t happy with the performance against Forres, you’ve got to be happy with that kind of form.”

Up next for Lie is a trip to Dumfries to take on Kello Rovers who have lost their opening nine league matches, but Sinclair is adamant his side will not take anything for granted against the Championship’s basement club.

He added: “Kello have lost nine from nine this season but we take nothing for granted. We thought we had a good chance against Kilsyth after they had a poor result before playing us and then we turned over 3-2. It’s a long journey down to Kello and past results mean nothing.

“We have got a bit of confidence about us after back-to-back wins so we’ll go into the game against Kello ready to go.”