Chris Aitken knows his East Kilbride team are more than capable of playing pretty football - but their battling side impressed him away at Civil Service Strollers.
Kilby knew they could open up an eight-point gap in the Lowland League’s fifth spot with victory against Strollers and they did just that in terrible weather conditions, via a 2-1 margin.
Alieau Faye’s leveller was not enough as Jamie Stevenson and Neil McLaughlin goals saw Kilby emerge victors on their travels.
They now sit level on points with Rangers B while second-placed Spartans are only six points behind, having played two matches more than Aitken’s EK team.
The K-Park boss says it was a must-win game for his team in order to give themselves that cushion in fifth place. Despite the game finishing a narrow affair, Aitken says the scoreline could have been larger.
He said: “It was a very important in fairness with the way the league table is looking. 2-1 was the score but it could have been more.
“They had a great spell in the second half where the put us under pressure. I saw a different side to my team on Saturday which really pleased me.
"I knew before the game that it would end up a battle and it wasn’t going to be nice football, the way we want to play. It was a big three points for us but the biggest thing for me was seeing that other side of my team.
“They rolled the sleeves up and went to-to-toe with a physical team and we managed to come out of the game on top.”
Cammy Elliot missed a glaring chance for EK before McLaughlin netted and it saved him the wrath of his manager. It could have proven costly to Kilby but it mattered little in the end.
That’s because goalkeeper Conor Brennan managed to come up trumps with two big saves at crucial points.
East Kilbride now face second-placed Spartans in a big match at Ainslie Park this weekend.
Aitken added: “We could have scored a few more. Cammy Elliot has missed one from a yard out and I don’t know how he missed.
“I said to him on the bus home ‘you were lucky Neil McLaughlin scored or you’d have been getting it!’ I don’t know how he missed. But we could have scored a few more goals.
"On the flipside, Conor Brennan makes two really good saves, one at 1-1 and one at 2-1 up. They were really good and it was the sign of a goalkeeper. He didn’t have much to do but when he was called upon, he came good for me.”
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