Kelty Hearts manager Michael Tidser is already looking to next season and hoping the atmosphere he has created will help keep players at the club.

Having finished in sixth spot, Tidser is now looking to build on their achievement as he looks to his second season in football management.

“Financially, we need to try and be clever with the budget in terms of players,” he said

“You see with the kids there we have got on, even some of the boys, like your Billy Owens, these are just young lads, Lewis O’Donnell, they have never played, Bavidge, they have not had a season at league one or any level so I am really proud of the lads.

“They have been great for me.

“From what I came into to where we are now, it is night and day. Now we just need to tweak a few wee things.

“It has been a major learning curve but one I have learned as the weeks and months have went on. There have been good spells and bad spells but to a man the lads have been great.

“They have always given me everything whether that is Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. That is all you can ask for as a manager. It is now up to me and my staff to now tweak things and see where we can get stronger and complement the boys that are already there. So that’s our goal over the summer. “

With the summer break now started, Tidser has already warned his players of the challenge they face when they return for pre-season.

“We go again,” he said. “I said to them, rest up then we get working again. We come back middle of June and we are right back at it again which is what you want.

“Players will come and go. Like anybody you always, I wasn’t really like it as a player but a I am speaking on behalf of players I have played with, people always go elsewhere for more money whether it is less travelling, different bits and bobs.

“I have said to them, in terms of the environment they get at Kelty, in terms of the way I manage as a person, my staff, I genuinely believe this when I say it, and I have been at other clubs, I think they will struggle to go elsewhere if it is for an extra £50 and enjoy it more than what they are enjoying it here.

“In terms of your Reece Lyons, your Lewis Moores, Moorey has signed on, Kyle Gourlay has signed on because they love coming into it.

"For me, that is music to my ears as a manager because it is the environment I want to create and hopefully that can carry the club forward over the next couple of years.”

Another player signed up for next season is midfielder Ross Cunningham who has agreed a new deal at New Central Park until June 2025. Cunningham signed from Clyde last summer and has been an important member of Tidser's squad.