Published: Thursday, 12th February, 2009 8:30am

Leaders Kelty refuse to get carried away

by Simon Harris

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THEY may be top of the Super League with just eight games left to play but no-one at Kelty Hearts is getting carried away.

Successive convincing victories over the other two teams in the top three, Linlithgow Rose (3-1) and Bonnyrigg Rose (3-0), in their last two outings has suggested that Stevie Leighton"s men could be bringing the title to Central Park.

But that"s not the talk in the Kelty dressing room according to Leighton, who says he is having no trouble keeping his players" feet on the ground.

'No-one at Kelty has even spoken about winning the league,' Leighton told Press Sport.

'No-one is getting carried away. We are capable of maybe finishing in the top three and if results go our way, we could end up winning it.

'But what keeps our feet on the ground is that we have played 14 games and only won six.

'OK, we"ve only lost four but that"s not league-winning form.

'We"ve dropped 20 points out of 42 and that"s a massive amount of points to drop.

'But you never know what can happen. Everyone else below us could cut each other"s throats as well and if we won our next couple of games ...

'I could not believe how we played when we went 1-0 up against Bonnyrigg. We could have got a lot more.

"If teams attack us, we can exploit them as we have a lot of pace in the side.

'But the quality of the teams you are facing every week in this league means that if we lose an early goal, teams can do the same to us.'

Having reached the top, Leighton insists he"s not reflecting too much on those dropped points.

'People say we should have won at Bo"ness and so on but we have got 22 points on the board,' he said.

'At the start of the season it was about survival and about seeing how high up we could finish.'

The big freeze meant only one juniors match in Scotland was played last weekend, with Kelty"s Redwood Leisure Cup tie at Jeanfield Swifts called off.

Leighton said, 'In a way, we were disappointed it was off because we are on a run but everyone else was off so it kept us top when we were looking at the league on Monday.'

Hearts will be without striker Ian Mauchlan (pulled calf) and defender Dene Droudge (strained medial ligaments) for this Saturday"s home Super League clash against Forfar West End.

Leighton said, 'We have a couple of incentives to win.

'The first is that they beat us up there early in the season.

'And we want to keep building on the progress we have made in the last few weeks.'

Rosyth Recreation will be hoping to bolster their Central League title charge by taking maximum points from their next two games, away at strugglers Luncarty this Saturday and then Steelend the following week.

Recs are top, with title rivals St Andrews second with a game in hand.

Co-boss Jock Lumsden said, 'The league is still in our hands as we have to play them away and if we win at St Andrews and all our other games, we will win the league.

'We are playing better away from home. If you look at the table, we have won nine games and drawn four and all four draws have come at home.

'We have got to keep plodding away and just worry about our own games.'

New signings from Cowdenbeath Chris King, Callum Young and John Robertson will all be in the squad to face Luncarty.

Elsewhere this weekend, Oakley United have a break from their Premier League survival scrap when they travel to Thornton Hibs in the Fife & Lothians Cup, while Crossgates are at home to Jeanfield Swifts in the Central League. All kick-offs are 2.15pm.