Published: Thursday, 18th June, 2009 11:20am

Cup kings Kelty celebrate another trophy

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The last minute of the season produced Kelty Hearts" first silverware of a campaign that has seen the super league side progress into a real force in the junior league"s top division.

Hearts defeated Glenrothes 1-0 in the final of the Maloco Cup at Lochore Welfare"s Central Park courtesy of captain Tam Courts" goal in the 90th minute.

Retaining the trophy meant the year ended on a high note for a side who at one stage looked capable of challenging for the Super League championship before their title tilt wilted in the final weeks of the season.

The Jambos finished fifth in the league, improving two places on last year"s position, and now the focus is firmly on taking another step forward in the coming season.

Gaffer Stevie Leighton said, 'It has been a season of continued progress for us. It was good to get a bit of silverware as we had let ourselves down in the cups this year. We have set a good standard but hopefully we can go on and improve on that now.'

There will be little rest for the Hearts players who begin preseason on 30th June, only three weeks after their season finished.

However there will be new faces among the backroom staff as Leighton"s assistant Craig Smart has opted to take time away from football.

Smart followed Leighton from Rosyth to Central Park three years ago and his manager paid tribute to an assistant who had been part of a very successful period for the club.

During the duo"s time at Kelty the club gained promotion to the Super League, won three trophies, reached the final of the Scottish Cup and Fife and Lothians Cup and consolidated their place in the top tier of junior football.

Leighton said, 'Craig has found it difficult this season to give the commitment he would like to give and wanted to take time out from football just now. I wish him all the best.

'We start back training just under three weeks after we finished but we played the last two games over a month. If there wasn"t a gap we may have had an extra week but with new coaching staff coming in we need to hit the ground running.'

In his place comes former Hibs and Meadowbank player Lee Bailey and Leighton is keen to renew a working relationship that began when Bailey was still lacing up his boots.

'He has played for me before at Rosyth and Kelty and has vast experience thanks to the managers he has played under and the level he has played at. He is going to be a great asset plus being a striker, where Craig and I were defenders, he will bring a different dimension to the way we play.'

Kenny Black, previously a youth coach with Dundee United and Dunfermline, will also join the team on a temporary basis as a coach over pre-season.

'Kenny has other commitments but is coming in for a temporary period during pre-season to see what he can do for us. He has good coaching ability and the new coaches means there is going to be a wee bit of freshness about the place. There will probably be a few players going in and out as well so we are looking forward to it and will just see where it takes us.'

One player seemingly on the way out is striker John Martin, who has been transfer listed.

Martin was sent off in the dying seconds of the Maloco Cup final for a wild lunge at a Glens player after Kelty had snatched the winner.