Gibbons nets his first senior strike Kieran delighted to help EK extend lead at the top
Paul Thomson Kieran Gibbons scored his first senior goal to help East Kilbride extend their lead at the top of the Lowland League to 10 points on Saturday.
The former Livingston kid clinched an 11th league win for Kilby midway through the second half after Ross McNeil’s early effort had opened the scoring in Cumbernauld.
Gibbons completed a fine move in 71 minutes after Martin McBride clipped a ball out wide for Adam Strachan, who rolled a perfect pass across the 18-yard box for Gibbons to stroke the ball into the far corner.
The 21-year-old revealed Kilby coach Paul Roberts has been encouraging him to take on more strikes, but warned fans not to expect a goal rush now he’s broken his duck.
The midfielder told the News: “That’s my first goal in senior football.
“I never been one to score many anyway, so I wouldn’t put that one down as a trademark goal.
“I wouldn’t expect too many more of them, but you never know.
“Robbo has been getting on at me to shoot more, so now I’ve scored I think he’ll be telling me to do it even more. My shooting has been wild the last couple of weeks, so this was an improvement.
“It was a good time to score with the game at 1-0 and it was a great ball from Strachan.
“That goal killed the game because Colts were starting to come into things a bit more.”
EK maintained their 100 per cent start to the season and stretched their remarkable winning run to 23 games in all competitions under boss Martin Lauchlan.
But Kilby were given an early warning in the opening 90 seconds when Colts star Stephen O’Neil headed over at the back post after Richard Kirwan’s cross picked him out unmarked.
With seven minutes on the clock, though, the visitors took the lead when Joao Victoria showed great strength to hold off his marker and his cheeky back heel teed up McNeil to lash the ball into the net.
But it took EK until the 71st minute to secure victory when Gibbons’s strike found the bottom corner.
Six minutes from time Colts almost got back into the game when sub Sean Brown’s strike cannoned back off the crossbar and he headed the rebound over the top.
Kilby boss Lauchlan was full of praise for his star man and said: “Gibbo covered every blade of grass and he should be at a higher level than us. To get him from full-time football is a massive coup for East Kilbride and he’s one that I would like to see go higher. It was a great goal from him and he showed great composure.
“He usually gets a nose bleed when he goes over the halfway line, but I thought he was different class.”
Saturday’s success has given Kilby a massive advantage in the title race, as they lead second place Dalbeattie Star by 10 points with a game in hand.
While Kilby keep on winning Star and third place Spartans both slumped to shock defeats to Gretna and Whitehill Welfare, respectively.
East Stirling, one of the big favourites for the title, are 14 points behind EK with a game in hand.
However, Gibbons is too shrewd to think the title is already in the bag.
He said: “We are not looking into the league table too much because it’s still very early.
“We are only in October and a lot can happen between now and the end of the season.
“I know it’s an old cliche, but we are only looking at one game at a time.
“Once you’ve got a winning mentality like we have it’s easier to win games and it becomes a habit.
“But momentum is the quickest thing to lose, so we need to stay focused.”
EK are on Challenge Cup duty on Saturday. They host Gala Fairydean in round two and kick-off is 3pm.
P W EAST KILBRIDE 11 11 Dalbeattie Star 12 7 Spartans 11 6 East Stirlingshire 10 6 Cumbernauld Colts11 6 Vale of Leithen 11 5 Stirling University 11 5 Whitehill Welfare 11 5 Gretna 2008 12 5 Hawick Royal Alb 11 5 BSC Glasgow 12 4 Gala Fairydean Rvs 11 2 Edinburgh Uni 11 2 Civil Service Stroll 10 2 Selkirk 12 3 Preston Athletic 11 2 D 0 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 0 3 4 3 3 0 1 L 0 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 6 6 5 5 6 5 9 8 GD PT 33 33 8 23 13 20 16 19 4 19 2 17 -2 17 -5 16 -13 16 3 15 -3 15 -11 10 -6 9 -7 9 -11 9 -21 7
To get him from full-time football is a massive coup for EK