GRAEME LOVE refused to blame the absence of key duo Jim Lister and Graeme McLaren for their weekend defeat to Lochee, insisting his side had enough firepower to win the match.The Jags pair were unavailable due to their involvement with the Junior Scotland side in the Umbro Quadrangular Tournament but boss Love wasn’t looking for any excuses.He said: “Before Saturday we still had 11 league matches to play as well as at least two cup matches and in one cup we are still at the second round stage.“So we have a lot of matches left to play and potentially a lot more so we wanted to get the game played.“Next week we have four games in seven days as we have matches on Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday again.“Considering all this we really had to play the match.“We did have two players away with the Scotland squad but so did Lochee and we also felt we had enough to go on and win the game.”Both Lister and McLaren scored as Scotland dumped the Republic of Ireland 2-1 to win the prestigious tournament and Love hopes their good form continues on thier return to Creamery Park.“I kept in touch with Jim and Graeme while they were away and it is great they did so well,” continued Love.“It gives them a boost and it means they come back to us on a high which is beneficial to us for our remaining games.”On Saturday, Barry Heggie bagged the game’s only goal in the dying minutes to take all three points for Lochee leaving Love gutted and admitting it will be hard now for the Jags to reign in long-time league leaders Bonnyrigg now.He added: “There wasn’t a lot in the game but we lost a goal two minutes from the end and the Lochee guys themselves admitted the player was at least five yards offside when he scored.“That was the disappointing thing but we should have still won the game.“I don’t want to dwell on the guys who were away as we had more than enough to win the match.“I still won’t rule out anything until it is mathematically impossible to catch Bonnyrigg but losing ion Saturday has made it so much more difficult. We know we need to win all of our remaining league fixtures to give ourselves a chance.”Read