Stranraer v East Kilbride: Kilby can go into second leg crunch with confidence, says star

Tiwi Daramola says East Kilbride go with confidence into their Pyramid play-off final second leg at Stranraer, after dominating at K-Park.

The 22-year-old striker says the only incentive Mick Kennedy’s side need is that by winning at Stair Park they end up in League Two, at the third attempt.

Kilby won the Lowland League by a canter and had to wait for a few weeks until the dust had settled on Buckie Thistle’s failed attempt to enter the play-offs, but that didn’t show as they took the game to Stranraer in South Lanarkshire.

Former Kelty Hearts and Stenhousemuir kid Daramola knows Kilby created more than enough chances to bury their senior opponents, but says that still gives them heart.

He said: “in the first half we were by far the better team. In the second half we kind of diverted away from the way we usually play.

“But I feel like we had the chances – including myself midway through the second half.

“It’s a different story if we take those chances, but at the end of the day we haven’t lost, it gives us impetus to go there, win the game, and if we do that we go up.”

Falkirk-born Daramola added: “I think we’ve given ourselves a chance, but we could have take the lead and taken something more out of the game.

“We could have been 3-0 up at half-time, but it’s one of those things we need to learn from.

“We’ll go again next week, but I don’t know how it’s going to go.

“I thought on Saturday we were the better team, we can take confidence from that, because of the way we played.

“We played some good stuff, particularly in the first half, and if we keep good quality off the ball and on the ball then we will be fine.

“But we just need to try and stick together and try to get what we can out of the game.”

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