East Kilbride collapse last season should be warning to this season's league leaders, says boss Mick Kennedy

Mick Kennedy reckons East Kilbride’s collapse from the top of the table last season can act as a warning to his side, with the K-Park sitting four points clear at the summit this season after last night's 2-2 draw at Linlithgow Rose.

Kilby opened up a gap early on in last season’s campaign under Kevin Rutkiewicz and were four points clear in October, only for the club to nosedive and finish sixth, 15 points off eventual champions Spartans.

So after his side moved four points clear of nearest rivals Tranent, Hearts B and Cumbernauld Colts, who are all on 19 points. Kennedy has told his charges they will need to stay focused.

Kennedy, whose team are unbeaten in 12 games in all competitions this season, said: “We have started the season really positively.

“But East Kilbride started the season really positively last season so this counts for nothing at the moment.

“It is about us maintaining our standards now.

“There is an expectation that we will win every week, so we need to deal with that.

“Three points or six points in the grand scheme of things isn’t a lot.

“A couple of teams around us are playing each other thus week so, no doubt, there will be points dropped somewhere because there has to be. So it is just about us trying to keep winning and pull away from some other teams as well, if we can.

“If we don’t, teams will pull us in a little.”

Last night, Kilby took the lead through Jonathan Lyon after 22 minutes, only to be pegged back in 58 minutes when Dylan Paterson levelled things up.

The visitors quickly regained the lead when Keir Samson struck in the 61st minute but EK quickly relinquished the lead when Connor McMullan netted in 65 minutes to earn Rose a point.

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