East Kilbride boss Kevin Rutkiewicz insists he would rather have points on the board than games in hand after his side opened up a gap at the top of the Lowland League on Saturday.
A narrow 1-0 win over Cumbernauld Colts put Kilby three points clear of Rangers B, who have two games in hand, and five ahead of third placed Civil Service Strollers, having played a game more.
Rutkiewicz knows that as pre-season title favourites the expectation is always on his side to win.
But he’s happy to put some pressure on his rivals ahead of a double-header that sees them face Dalbeattie Star tonight (Wednesday) and Caledonian Braves on Saturday.
He said: “I’ve been involved in football a long time now and you are always better having points on the board.
“You can argue with me until you are blue in the face, wherever you are in the world in football, but for me you are always better letting other teams play catch-up and then have the pressure on them to go and get full points.
“If they do, kudos to them, but we’ve got to make sure our house is in order and I felt we’ve done probably just enough to beat Colts on Saturday.
“I do feel when you represent East Kilbride, even from the stands, there is an expectation that we should just win.
“That’s not football, it just doesn’t work like that.
“You’ve got to earn the right to win every Saturday, regardless of the opposition and where they are in the table.”
Saturday’s win ended a run of back-to-back home games without a win following defeat to Edinburgh Uni and a draw with East Stirling.
So Rutkiewicz will be taking nothing for granted when Kilby head to bottom side Dalbeattie.
He added: “We’ve been burnt before and I will use that Edinburgh game to remind the players.
“Edinburgh came here massive underdogs and we didn’t cope with the pressure of being the team that was expected to win that day.
“That will be the expectation level on Wednesday as well, whether we like it or not.
“Dalbeattie have nothing to lose. We have to bring our best game to the table.”
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