KILBIRNIE Ladeside boss Colin Spence insists his side are "not far away" from hitting top form.

The Garnock Valley side made it four successive draws in the West of Scotland Football League First Division at the weekend, maintaining their mid-table placing after their rollercoaster 2-2 draw at home to Cumbernauld United on Saturday, November 2.

Ladeside found themselves two behind at half-time before second half goals from CJ Johnston and Graham Boyd levelled the match.

The Blasties looked the most likely to take all three points but an injury after the use of their final substitution meant the home side had to play out the final 15 minutes with 10 men.

Despite his disappointment in not securing all three points, Spence has been pleased by the character his side have shown to remain unbeaten across their recent league endeavours.

He said: “We’ve only lost one game over the last nine weeks, there’s a lot of cup games and the four league games have all been draws.

“It’s a hard one, in one sense we’re not losing games of football – it tells you that we’re not far away, we’re hard to beat and it shows the boys have got character.

“The boys are certainly getting used to not losing games, that feeling is massive for me.

“Hopefully we are building and soon we will start turning those draws into wins and we won’t be far away.

“It is a hard one though because it is only one point, it is so much more to get a win.”

As his side keep picking up points, the Valefield boss remains confident that when they do put together a run of wins they will be in a strong position to climb the tightly packed First Division table.

He continued: “If we won on Saturday we would have went up to seventh, it’s unbelievable really, we are in a great position to pounce.

“Our biggest problem has been that we are getting a good half out the boys, it’s just trying to get a complete performance.

“This time last year we were really struggling, it wasn’t until December time that we kind of turned things round and went on a great run.

“We’re certainly closer to it this year and at one point we will go on a run and put those wins together.

“It’s a hard one because it may just seem like one point just now, but come the end of May they could be massive.”

And with last year's excellent run in mind, Spence remains confident of doing similar this year - with hopes of a greater reward at the end of the campaign.

He added: “We need to put ourselves in a good position, but you also need to look at league fixtures.

“We’ve been away at some of the tougher venues in the league, it’s been a tough run.

“When we need to make more playing at home, when we are playing at Valefield we really need start putting teams to the sword and make sure we collect our three points.

“If we can start doing that then we will be in the mix. It’s such a tight league, last year you had some outstanding squads, there isn’t going to be that this year.

“The opportunity is there for the likes of us if we can hit a bit of form, it will open right up.”

Next up for Kilbirnie is a home league match against Irvine Meadow on Saturday, November 9, with kick off at 2pm.