Craig Malcolm hopes East Kilbride have learned from previous seasons and will avoid a stuttering start to their Lowland League campaign.
Kilby have suffered from their involvement in the League Cup group stages over the years as they’ve played catch up on their title rivals.
East Kilbride failed to qualify from their Premier Sports Cup group and despite having two games in hand, Kilby already trail leaders Dalbeattie Star by ten points.
Malcolm rescued a point for EK in their season opener against Celtic B on Saturday with a last-minute equaliser on Saturday before scoring in their 1-1 draw against Caldeonian Braves on Tuesday and he insists they need to start firing soon.
Speaking before the Braves clash, Malcolm said: “We didn’t start the league well last time we were in the league cup and we were playing catch-up.
“We never really got going after that so it was important not to start with a defeat to avoid chasing teams - hopefully it will turn out to be a crucial point.
“The manager wasn’t there last time but he’s been made aware of that by the senior players, the committee members and chairman.
“He’s drilling it into us just how important a good start to the season is and we need to get the points on the board.
“We’ve faced a tough schedule at the start of the season and we are missing loads of players so it’s a good point of reflection.
“We’ve picked up so many injuries during the League Cup so although it’s good to test yourself against good teams, there has been a negative aspect.
“We had six or seven players missing on Saturday who would have featured in the game. Some boys have played eight or nine games after not playing for six months so that’s been a factor in the injuries.
“But we needed to get the minutes in the legs so it was a catch-22 situation but most of the boys should be back soon.
“It wasn’t our best performance but we had a lot of young players who showed that they’re capable of playing.
“I thought I could have hit the ball earlier for my goal but, at my age, you need an extra couple of steps to position your body.
“I was actually trying to lay the ball back to the edge of the box but it wasn’t on. Luckily, I looked back round and it opened up so I was able to find the back of the net.
There has been huge controversy surrounding Rangers and Celtic entering B teams into the Lowland League but Malcolm wasn’t surprised by the quality on show on Saturday.
“They played exactly how I expected them too,” Malcolm added. “They are really good on the eye, passed the ball nicely and they had brilliant movement.
“It’s very difficult to get the ball off of them once they get going because they have so much energy and their rotations are good.
“At times we struggled to deal with it but that was partly down to missing so many experienced players.”
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