ARDEER Thistle boss Sean Kenney says "the bunting's not out yet" despite his side reaching the top of the table.

Thistle made it to the West of Scotland Football League Third Division summit after they defeated Wishaw 2-1 away from home on Saturday (August 24).

The match was level after 45 minutes, though Ardeer took the lead early in the second half through David Henry.

Despite being pegged back, the North Ayrshire outfit secured all three points via a Greg Kean penalty with just minutes of the 90 remaining.

The Stevenston side are far from getting carried away, with manager Kenney insisting there is plenty of room for improvement yet.

He commented: “It was a good three points on Saturday, it maybe wasn’t the performance we were looking for but it was good to get the three points.

“We’ve came in, we’ve been quite angry at half-time but we’re happy at full-time. We’ve still got a long way to go, we’ve still to play a lot better than that.

“This time last season we thought we were playing well in a lot of games and we weren’t winning any of them so I’ll take this problem for now, that’s for sure.”

Kenney and his squad only became aware the result took them to the top of the table following the match - after discovering results elsewhere had went in their favour.

In spite of that fact, Thistle are not letting the league leaders tag go to their head.

The Ardeer boss said: “It was a nice surprise when we came out after the game but I think that’s the good thing about the group, there wasn’t any getting carried away.

“We were quite critical of each other, we have a lot to work on, we need to do a lot better.

“When that does happen I think we have a better team but right now we are six games in – the bunting is not out yet that’s for sure.”

And Kenney is glad his players are on board with his demands for improvement - though he admits it is a nice problem to have compared to last season.

The 2023/24 campaign saw Ardeer embroiled in a relegation battle, picking up nine wins and 36 points from their 30 game season.

Kenney added: "I think we’ve got half our points tally from last season already, we’ve won a similar amount of games so there’s obviously an improvement.

“I think that’s the good thing, it’s not just me moaning, the boys can see themselves that we’ve got a long way to go to be the team that we can be – and that will come.

“The things we are looking to improve on are not unreasonable targets.”

Although Kenney is happy to be atop the table at the moment, he was keen to hammer home that if performances don't improve that may not be for long.

However, he is confident his side can do it after already showing improvements in key areas targeted in pre-season.

He continued: “If it doesn’t click we won’t stay there but I think it’s well within our reach to make them click.

“We’re still controlling games, playing well, there’s loads of positives.

“I think we’ve got the best defence in the league so far, these are things we’ve actively worked on.

“The team with the best defence is usually up there at the end of the season, so we need to keep that going.

“Once it all clicks, we’ll be a lot better and we’re not a million miles away.

“We’re within touching distance but we do have to work hard to get there.”