East Kilbride boss: Ayr United upset should kick us on in promotion bid

East Kilbride boss Mick Kennedy says their stunning SPFL Trust Trophy upset against Ayr United last week should give his players the confidence to win promotion to the professional ranks for the first time.

Kilby fans are still walking on Ayr after last Tuesday’s thrilling 3-2 victory over the Honest Men at K-Park in a quarter-final tie, where Kilby raced into a two-goal lead early on, were pegged back to 2-2 but still found the resolve to grab a winner against a side playing three tiers above them in the pyramid system.

John Robertson rifled EK into the lead inside 40 seconds with a stunning strike, before Joao Balde headed home from Robertson’s cross inside 12 minutes to put the hosts in dreamland.

Spraying passes about and regularly threatening their opponents, EK looked in control until David Ferguson’s slack pass back was pounced upon by Jay Henderson to make it 2-1.

EK quickly conceded a second when Marco Rus’ effort in 64 minutes looked to have turned the momentum in Ayr’s favour.

However, Cami Elliott headed home from Ian McShane’s cross just three minutes later and EK saw out a famous win over Scott Brown’s Championship title hopefuls.

Kennedy was thrilled with the display and believes it will give his side belief they can win the Lowland League title and win promotion through the play-offs, having just missed out to Stranraer last season.

He beamed: “I’m delighted with the result. I always felt if we could impose ourselves on the game, we would always have an opportunity.

“To be fair to the boys, that’s exactly what they did. I thought we were excellent.

“You need to believe you can win the competition when you get this deep into it. It is about kicking on now and taking real confidence and belief from this