Kilby boss delighted with another clean sheet
East Kilbride ............ 2 Edusport .................. 0
Paul Thomson
Brian Kerr heaped praise on his defence as a third clean sheet in a row helped East Kilbride return to the top of the Lowland League.
Goals from Craig Reid and Sean Winter were enough to sink a strong Edusport side and put Kilby joint-top of the standings with Kelty Hearts, who have played a game more.
East Kilbride are now the only unbeaten team in the division after Spartans’ shock 3-1 defeat to Gala Fairydean.
While Kilby bagged the points thanks to two fine goals – the first a wonderfully crafted free-kick finished off by Reid and the second a superb strike from Winter – Kerr was keen to focus on his backline.
He said: “Early in the season a lot of plaudits were given to the forward players, but I’m pleased with how solid we’ve been defensively recently.
“That’s a few clean sheets now, Matty (McGinley) has made some important saves and our boys at the back have been strong.
“They are the base and the foundation for what we are trying to do and when they are playing well it benefits our forward players.
“It was a great win for us after a tough game.
“We’ve been very consistent so far and the team who is most consistent will win the league.”
The hosts broke the deadlock after 28 minutes when Graeme Holmes, Anton Brady and Paul Woods combined at a well-worked free-kick to lay the ball on a plate for Reid to score.
Winter doubled the lead in 69 minutes with a low drive from 20-yards.
Seconds later Kilby keeper McGinley marked his 100th appearance for the club with a fine stop from ex-EK striker Liam Coogans to preserve the clean sheet. Kerr was delighted with the quality of the goals.
He added: “The first goal was a setpiece we’ve been working on and it came off perfectly.
“The passing has to be very precise and we’ve produced some good onetouch football and caught Edusport off guard.
“It was good to see Sean get a goal for all his hard work and make things more comfortable for us.
“We’ve put a demand on the players to shoot from further out because we always seem to want to work it into the box before we shoot. Sean has shown what can be achieved.”
Kilby now take a fortnight break from league duties to focus on cup action.
They travel to Leith on Saturday in the South Challenge Cup and then host Spartans in the William Hill Scottish Cup on October 20.
“We emphasised the importance of going into this wee league break with a good result and the players did what we asked of them,” said Kerr.
P Kelty Hearts 9 EAST KILBRIDE 8 Cumbernauld Colts Spartans BSC Glasgow Edusport Academy Vale of Leithen CS Strollers Gala Fairydean R East Stirlingshire Edinburgh Uni Gretna 2008 Stirling University Dalbeattie Star Whitehill Welfare W 6 6 6 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 3 2 2 1 D 2 2 1 3 4 3 2 1 0 2 5 2 4 2 1 L GD 1 18 0 16 2 4 1 12 2 5 3 6 5 -3 4 -2 6 -3 5 3 3 -3 5 -10 4 -4 6 -14 9 -25 PT 20 20 19 18 16 15 14 13 12 11 11 11 10 8 4
Other results BSC Glasgow 2 Cumbernauld Colts 2; CS Strollers 3, East Stirling 4; Gala Fairydean 3 Spartans 1; Gretna 1 Kelty Hearts 3; Vale of Leithen 3 Dalbeattie Star 0; Whitehill Welfare 1, Edinburgh Uni 1 0.