Promotion is the sole aim for Dunbar United

Dunbar United boss Kevin Haynes has his sights firmly set on promotion

The Seasiders hold a ten-point lead over their nearest rivals as they seek instant promotion back to the top flight – and Haynes hopes his side can secure a return sooner rather than later.

Star have a game in hand on Dunbar, and Haynes believes Saturday’s clash at New Countess Park is a must win for Chris King’s side.

“I feel there is more pressure on Newtongrange than us, I don’t know how Kingy would feel about that but they need to win,” said Haynes. “We have the potential to go 13 points clear and that make it difficult for them, so it’s massive for Newtongrange. Could we afford to lose one or two? Probably. I don’t think anyone in the league is going to through until the end of the season unbeaten and winning every game.

“Us winning would benefit a lot more teams [in the league], in terms of trying to catch Newtongrange and getting in the promotion places. We want to try and make our season a 25 game season if we can, we don’t want to go into the last three, four or five games being desperate to pick up a point or three points; we want to do our hard work and achieve our goal which is promotion. Personally, I am not fussed about winning the league, I just want to get promoted.”

Haynes’ side go into the match having won eight league games in a row. Their defensive solidity has been key to their success having conceded less than a goal a game in the second tier in their 19 matches so far.

Haynes added: “We are cruising along nicely just now with loads of bumps potentially on the road. Being strong defensively has been a massive part of it. When I took the job last year, we were really weak defensively and conceded a lot of goals, we had zero clean sheets which was a massive part in our demise. It was something we worked on and wanted to get better at. “