Billy: We face fight to keep crown
BILLY STARK has warned against complacency as East Kilbride prepare to get their title defence underway today at home to Dalbeattie.
Kilby dominated the Lowland League last term under former boss Martin Lauchlan, topping the table from start to finish and winning the trophy by seven points from East Stirling.
They lost just three times in 30 games but were denied promotion to the SPFL after losing to Cowdenbeath on penalties in the play-off final.
Kilby are the favourites to retain their crown but Stark said: “It would be folly to think just because we won the league last year we’ll win it again this year.
“We are there to be shot down and clubs will find that little extra against us.
“All the teams around us have strengthened – Spartans, East Stirling, BSC Glasgow.
“But Edusport are going to be an interesting one. They are basically a full-time team. They train at Lesser Hampden every day and are all French players who have come over so that’s an interesting project.
“They are going to be strong. We train twice a week, they train every day so I would expect them to be real contenders.
“You look at East Stirling, they scored a lot more goals than us last season.
“We’ve lost Joao Victoria who was our top scorer and that’s difficult at any level.”
The majority of the titlewinning squad remain and Kilby signed Ross Caldwell, Aidan Ferris and Liam Coogans in the hope of finding the goals that can fire them to another success.
Last season East Kilbride won their opening 14 league matches. It would be a tall order to repeat that but Stark – who has seen it all at the top level during his time with Celtic and Aberdeen among others – isn’t fazed.
He added: “It all comes down to how much pressure you put on yourself to be the best you can be – and that doesn’t change whatever level you’re working at.
“I have to make sure nobody has any sign of complacency. There are clubs with equal aspirations so we need to show we’re good enough to overcome that and get there in the end.”