Bo'ness Athletic ready for defining month in title tilt, says boss Willie Irvine

Willie Irvine’s team are currently six points ahead at the top of the East of Scotland Third Division after Saturday’s 3-1 win over West Calder, with a positive goal difference of 74, a whopping 44 goals ahead of their nearest challengers.

"If we could win the four matches it would be very difficult for the other teams to claw us back,” boss Willie Irvine said ahead of Athletic’s tough month. “It certainly won’t be easy by means and we have a two tough away trips in there.

"We have Edinburgh away from home on Saturday coming and they are no mugs. They have a really big pitch and it is a ground most teams struggle at. This season they have been right on it so I am not expecting an easy match.

"Last season we were in a great position and eventually didn’t go up so it isn’t a given.”We’ve played 15 games so there is still 21 to go which is a fair amount and it is a longer league season this time around so we have to be consistent, especially over the winter months.

"Games will eventually be called off here and there and it always becomes a bit of a struggle in January and February. We just need to keep our feet on the ground and we’ll be fine. We’re taking it game by game.”

Looking back at the weekend’s victory over West Calder, Irvine said: "We weren’t at our best but we were still pretty comfortable. Tiwi (Daramola) grabbed another goal early on and we didn’t look back. We were 3-0 up and gave away a penalty late on.

"I think after our big cup result last weekend, we saw a bit of a hangover from that because of just how impressive that result was. In the end it was three points.”

Meanwhile, Daramola’s two-goal haul in the match put him onto 37 goals for the season already, building on his double hat-trick in the previous weekend’s cup tie.

Irvine once again praised the striker for his contribution, saying: “His chances to goals ratio has improved ten-fold. When he first arrived it was probably two in ten, it’s now nine in ten.”