PICTURES: Keith Football Club goal hero Gavin Elphinstone says new training schedule has triggered Maroons’ ten-match unbeaten Highland League run
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Hard work on the training ground is paying off for on-form Keith, says goal hero Gavin Elphinstone.
The Maroons made it ten matches unbeaten in the Highland League after defeating Huntly 1-0 at Kynoch Park on Saturday, Elphinstone grabbing the winning goal.
Six wins and four draws since a 2-0 loss at Banks O’ Dee at the start of February have propelled Craig Ewen’s side up the rankings, with a top ten finish not yet beyond them.
Elphinstone’s theory on his side’s resurgence is a change to the club’s training regime which happened round about the time of the Dee defeat.
“We’re training a bit more than we were at the start of the season so I do think that has helped the boys get fitter,” he said.
“The more time the boys spend together, the more they are bonding and finding out how each other plays. With the training being extended you can see how it is helping us.
“You can see it in games. When we played at Huntly recently, going into the last 20 minutes, we still had engines running and I’ve found that against quite a few teams in our good run.
“It’s been about eight weeks since the training has been extended. Call it coincidence or not, I personally think it’s been paying off.
“Individually we’ve got some great players and everybody has their own attributes and I think we are finally coming together as a collective and it is paying off.”
Elphinstone admitted he was unsettled at Keith earlier in the season and was placed on the transfer list by manager Ewen, but is now back in the fold and helping the team to make progress.
The super-fit attacker revealed that the Maroons’ previous issues with training facilities was a factor in his unhappiness at the time, but both he and his team-mates have benefitted from sessions at new facilities.
“For me personally it was more the training side of things,” he said.
“When I was training at previous clubs I was doing a lot more than I was at Keith. I felt personally my fitness was going backwards.
“I train every single day, out with (Keith) training but there’s only so much gym work and running I can do. I need a ball and I need other players around me to help me get sharper.
“I said that to the club and was told that training would be getting extended but apparently they were struggling to find facilities. Now they have a new base where they can train longer and it’s a good facility and the main thing is it's a longer period of training, and it’s helping us.”
Elphinstone capitalised on a misjudged Huntly pass back on 49 minutes to score the only goal of Saturday’s Kynoch Park clash - his fourth goal in four games for the Maroons.
He also netted the only goal of the recent 1-0 win over Lossiemouth, and both Keith goals in last week’s 2-1 win at Inverurie Locos.
“James Connelly went to pass the ball back to Fraser Hobday,” he recalled. “I asked James what happened but I think he caught a bit of the mud and it didn’t go far enough back and I managed to anticipate the ball not getting there.
“I took a touch and Hobday came out and I took it to my left side and bent it round him into the bottom corner.
“In games like that where it's close, getting that little head start is a boost and can leave you with a mountain to climb to get back in if you’re on the wrong side of it.
“It was against my old team Huntly. We played them last week as well but the pitch at Christie Park was really hard and bobbly. I’m a player who likes to get the ball and run at players and it’s near impossible to do that on a surface like that.
“I think that’s ten goals now for the season. It’s always good to get on the scoresheet but when it's the winning goals, it’s a good feeling to help the boys out.
“The team is picking up good points against teams who are generally above us in the league. We had a poor start but I didn’t think it justified how we were playing.
“We were losing by a goal so many times and that was a bit of a sickener as we look back thinking we could be up in the top eight or nine if we were getting some of the results we are managing now.”
As impressive as Keith’s recent run is, it will be a hard job maintaining their unblemished sequence when their next two matches are against the two front runners in the title chase.
On Wednesday they welcome champions and current league leaders Brechin City to Kynoch Park, before taking on the first of a double header of matches against Buckie Thistle on Saturday, also on home soil.
Elphinstone says the confidence gained from recent results can help Keith pick up points against the main challengers.
“We beat Buckie in the cup this season, but I generally think that the Highland League comes down to who turns up on the day and who is going to grind it out.
“Even when you see some bigger scorelines, the games can be quite close for a period of time and all it takes is a five minute spell and three goals go in and the score can be quite deceiving in terms of the overall balance of play.
“We’ve got Brechin on Wednesday and Buckie on Saturday. They are both going for the league but I am still hopeful that we can get a result against these teams.
“They are at the top of the table and we have nothing to lose really. We want to climb a bit higher and I am still hopeful we can finish tenth which would be a good achievement based on where we were earlier in the season.”
