Title and promotion to the EoS Premier League is the goal for Leith Athletic

Leith Athletic manager Steve Chalmers revealed he has told his players he expects nothing less than to be challenging for promotion come the business end of the season.

Leith Athletic boss Steve Chalmers was pleased to bring in players such as Kevin Brown, above right

The East of Scotland Division One Conference A league leaders have won seven of their opening nine league matches and are three points better off than second-placed Heriot-Watt University, who they host at Peffermill tomorrow.

Chalmers believes the squad he has assembled has more than enough quality to keep them in the hunt for league title honours – and he has made that abundantly clear to his players.

“We had a big turnover of players in the summer so last season when the Junior clubs came into the league, we wanted to get a feel for it and prepare properly this term,” Chalmers explained.

“I think we’ve reaped the benefits with just one defeat and a draw in the league out of nine so far.

“We managed to bring guys back who had been at the club before and also sign the likes of Kevin Brown from Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale.

“We set the players the target of winning the league and promotion to the Premier League before a ball was even kicked. The players know what we expect but they’ve bought into it and have performed really well so far.

“There are still some big teams in our league, Kinnoull, Haddington and St Andrews so we certainly won’t be getting carried away.”

On this weekend’s opponents Heriot-Watt, Chalmers added: “I watched them on Tuesday night against Peebles and they are a good side.

“They like to play football the right way so it’s going to be a hard ask for us. Bejay (Koya) has them playing well so I’m not surprised. I think a lot of their players are students so they get a lot more training and exposure to playing than my guys do.

“The facilities at Peffermill are brilliant so it has the makings of a right good game.”