Kilby’s first half show blows Braves away
EK end run of defeats
Jim Paterson heaped praise on his East Kilbride side for their first half display as they blew Caldeonian Braves away on Saturday.
The defending Lowland League champions had suffered back-toback defeats going into the clash at Alliance Park, but strikes from Anton Brady and Graeme Holmes sealed just their seventh win of the season.
And caretaker boss Paterson was thrilled with the first 45 minutes, insisting their opponents should have been dead and buried by the break
He said: “Our first half performance was the best we’ve had in my time here, although the second half up at Formartine in the cup was really good.
“The players are really taking on board what I’m asking them to do with the high press and the speed of our play in the final third was different class.
“We had overlapping full-backs and in the first half we were absolutely excellent and we should have been out of sight.
“We had so many chances in the first half we could have been about four or five up at half-time.
“I said that to them at the break. In the second half Braves had a go and put us under pressure, but we stood strong.”
The Braves had humiliated East Kilbride earlier in the campaign when they cruised to a 3-1 win at K-Park during Stuart Malcolm’s time in charge of Kilby.
But they earned their revenge with a dominant display and a welcome clean sheet.
Kilby remain ninth in the table and for Paterson, his focus is taking one game at a time as the club build towards a Scottish Cup fourth round tie with Lowland rivals BSC Glasgow at K-Park next month.
Paterson added: “The Braves were caught on their heels a bit. I don’t think they expected us to play like that because they beat us 3-1 at K-Park earlier in the season at a canter.
“So there’s massive positives for us building towards the cup game.
“If we play the way we did in the first half every week, there won’t be many teams in the division who can live with us.”