JAMIE McGOWAN says Kilbirnie Ladeside have laid down a marker for the rest of the campaign after cruising to victory on the opening day of the season.

The keeper saved an Ashfield penalty with the scoresheet still blank at Valefield Park on Saturday - inspiring his outfield team-mates to put their foot down and chalk up a 4-0 win.

Jon Scullion and Ryan Connelly gave the Blasties a two-goal interval lead before a Scott Lewis double in the second 45 completed a highly satisfying first day's work.

It made for a rare opening day victory for Kilbirnie, who finished last season in a rich vein of form.

Penalty hero McGowan said he was delighted with the result and performance, adding that he hopes it is a sign of things to come.

He said: "I think it’s been a good few years since Kilbirnie have won the first league game, so it was great to start off on a win.

"Last year the team got off the a poor start, which ultimately meant our good run in the second half of the season still wasn’t enough to potentially sneak a promotion place.

"We definitely want to keep the momentum going this year. Since I arrived in January we’ve had a lot of good positive results and performances.

"I’ve really enjoyed my first six months. I think we just ran out of games last year to try and finish higher and the slow start caught up with us."

The Valefield stopper is confident that the club have the players in place to kick on from their positive start.

McGowan added: "The new players have settled in really well, and I feel like we are coming together as a really good group.

"The attitude and work rate for each other on Saturday was a marker we’ve set so we need to stick to that for the rest of the season.

"With the midweek games for the first few weeks of the season it’s important to get as many points as possible to try build some momentum and not have to be chasing our tale and playing catch up.

"After a few weeks we then start to play cup games so you will want to have confidence and wins under our belt going into those games."

The former Largs Thistle keeper says that Colin Spence's side are yet to set any official targets for this season, though their first aim should be improving on their finishing position in 2023-24.

McGowan continued: "The league will definitely be very tight this year - not just our league but all the leagues in WoSFL. That just shows the quality that is in our set-up.

"We’ve not officially set any targets but we will be looking to win every game, particularly at Valefield, and make our place a place that teams won’t want to come to.

"After that, we just need to see how high up we can finish. At the very least we need to be finishing higher than last years 11th place."

On a more personal level, McGowan is hoping that this clean sheet will be the first of many - even if the performance will be a hard one to top.

He said: "Saturday was probably a perfect game for me. A win, clean sheet and a penalty save, with a few other saves flung in there too.

"I’ve always had a pretty good record with penalties, and that’s me now saved five in a row so hopefully if it’s called upon I can keep that run going.

"The clean sheet was massive for me and as a team. Last year I had nine clean sheets and I’ll be looking to get more this year."

Next up for Kilbirnie is a trip to face Rutherglen Glencairn on Wednesday, July 31, at 7.30pm.