LEADERS KELVIN HAVE SIX APPREAL

BARRY Lavery admits Kelvin “are there to be shot at” after they moved top of the tree in 2B courtesy of a hard-fought 2-1 win over Ravenhill Young Men on Saturday.

The victory was a sixth of the season for the Midgley Park men and, coupled with Beann Mhadaghain’s shock 6-2 home reverse to St Teresa’s, was enough to send them clear on goal difference.

After a relatively unspectacular campaign last year, where they finished in fourth place with 10 wins and eight defeats, there’s been a significant upturn in fortunes this season. But Lavery insists his club are determined to keep their heads down, insisting no one at Kelvin is looking any further than their next fixture this Saturday at St Teresa’s.

“We’re buzzing but it’s only early days, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” said Lavery.

“We’re doing well but we are there to be shot at. We’ve done well to get to the top of the table, the hardest part is to stay there.

“But there are a couple of teams there challenging us, and I don’t know if some teams have picked up players over the last few weeks because of the way some of the results are going.

“So it’s going to be tough but we’re not going to be counting our chickens, we know where we are at.”

The current management team of Lavery, Eddie Williamson and coaches Darren Mccullough and Barry Young, took charge of the club at the beginning of last season and immediately set about overhauling the squad, with Chris Graham, Glenn Booth and Gary Bingham prised from Dunmurry Young Men, and

Mark Arnold and Ryan Rickey checking in from Suffolk.

And the recruitment drive resumed again over the summer, with Lavery convinced their recent additions have taken Kelvin to the next level.

“We finished around mid-table last season so we knew we needed to get better players in so we signed a new goalkeeper, he should be playing at a higher level, Conan Russell. He’s class, even on Saturday he pulled off two great saves and that there wins you leagues, those types of saves,” explained Lavery.

“And then we got a striker in called William Elliott from

Derriaghy, he’s been playing really well, and we got Curtis Moorehead from Taughmonagh Young Men, and Dean Sproule and Steven Irvine from

Suffolk, so we’ve been going good.

“And Saturday there was probably one of our best wins yet, it was a brilliant win, we played very well.

“It was a battle more than a football performance but the boys did well, they rolled their sleeves up and it could probably have been three or four, but as usual with our team, we don’t make it easy for ourselves.”