Published: Thursday, 14th May, 2009 10:20am

'We'll have failed if we don't win a trophy' - Kelty boss

by Graham Gibson

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KELTY HEARTS" season will be considered a failure should they fail to win any silverware despite a campaign that has brought some impressive Super League results.

That was the view of Hearts gaffer Stevie Leighton after his team had dismantled a youthful Oakley side 4-0 at Blairwood Park in the quarter- final of the Maloco Cup.

Now the Jambos travel to Kirkcaldy in the semi-final this Saturday looking to ensure they take the next step in retaining the trophy.

Leighton said, 'Even though we have done well in the Super League if we don"t win a cup I"ll feel it"s a failing. We are a big club and should be in cup finals challenging for trophies. We won that cup last year so would like to win it again.

'Going out to St Andrews and Thornton Hibs already in other cups shows that there may be aspects in the squad we"ll have to tweak if we don"t win a cup this year but we are not far away.'

There were no mistakes last Saturday though as Hearts led 1-0 at half-time before adding three goals in the last quarter of the game.

'I don"t think we were ever in any danger of losing the game,' Leighton said.

'From an Oakley point of view they were talking about having young players and the oldest one being 25 but there is no point talking about that.

'If that is your problem you"ve got to sort it.

'When we got the third goal it was just as well it was quite late as it might have been a few more. With us both having guys missing I think it showed the quality of the two squads.

'If they had equalised it would have been a test for us but we would have run over the top of them. We were just a bigger, stronger, more experienced side.'

Oakley manager Stevie Kay was pleased with his team"s performance but admitted that Kelty had superior strength in depth mixed in with that little bit more quality overall.

'Both teams were missing players and they were just in a better state of affairs to handle it than we were,' he reflected.

'We are only six months into rebuilding whereas Stevie has had two or three years to build up his team. I need to bring in a wee bit of experience for when we are away from home and to see games out.

'The oldest boy on the park for me was 25 and I had two teenagers playing.

'We had a couple of spells first and second half where we were on top but we never scored. The score should never have been 4-0 but they were ruthless and it was a lesson for us why they are in the Super League and we are not.'

Elsewhere, Steelend had a stunning 5-1 victory away to hapless Crossgates Primrose while Rosyth put their recent defeats behind them to crush Lochore Welfare 6-1 at Recreation Park.

Saturday"s fixtures: Maloco Cup quarter final – Kirkcaldy v Kelty Hearts; East Central Bukta Teamwear.com League – Newburgh v Rosyth, Steelend Vics v St.Andrews Utd. (Kick-offs 2.30pm).