East Kilbride Thistle boss Aaron Connolly admits the next week is “as big as it comes” as they look to pull off a great relegation escape on the 40th anniversary of the club’s Junior Cup win.
The Jags were celebrating the biggest moment in their history on May 29, 1983, when Kenny Gordon and Joe Reilly netted at Ibrox in a 2-0 win over Bo’ness United – who, ironically, lost to Thistle’s local rivals East Kilbride FC at the weekend in the Lowland League Cup final.
But now the Jags are staring at one of their darkest days as they bid to avoid the drop to the lowest tier of the West of Scotland League.
Thistle’s 5-1 defeat at home to champions Vale of Clyde on Saturday means they now need to beat Vale of Leven tonight and Lugar Boswell Thistle on Saturday, while hoping other results go their way, to avoid dropping into the fourth division.
Connolly said: “This week is as big as it comes.
“We’ve got two massive games, both at home and against teams around us.
“We’ve gone through a very difficult spell and we’ve been a bit unfortunate on a few occasions.
“But we find ourselves in a situation where we need to win our last two games and hope that results elsewhere go our way.
“It coming on the anniversary of the club’s Scottish Junior Cup win shows where the club can be, against where it currently is.
“There is a lot of hard work to be done in the future to try and have some continuity at the club and try to make East Kilbride Thistle a stronger force again.
“I think we have seen in the past where the club can be and we are nowhere near that yet.
“What we do have is an honest group of players who will give it absolutely everything this week to keep our Third Division status.
“I think it is great that the club has that Junior Cup win in the background, but we need to strive to focus on where the club is now and get ourselves out of this situation.
“At the end of the season, we can look to teams of the past for inspiration going forward. Unfortunately, the club is having a difficult time, but hopefully we can turn a corner with that.”
Of course, Thistle could be relegated before the weekend but Connolly feels they have a good opportunity to beat Vale and take it to the final day.
He added: “Vale of Leven have been on a decent run but we had a good 2-0 win away there earlier in the season.
“We played really well that day so we know we can get close to them.
“Hopefully we find a performance like that again.”
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