East Kilbride 3 Ayr 2: Giant killer Mick Kennedy hails Kilby's courage and belief as Honest Men crash out of SPFL Trust Trophy

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Giant killer Mick Kennedy hailed East Kilbride's courage and belief after they stunned Championship high-flyers Ayr United to reach the semi-finals of the SPFL Trust Trophy for the first time.Kennedy - who masterminded Darvel's famous Scottish Cup win over Aberdeen in 2023 and knocked out Trust Trophy holders Airdrieonians in the last round - saw his charges produce an impressive display at K-Park to send Scott Brown's side spinning out to an embarrassing 3-2 defeat.Kilby raced into a 2-0 lead inside 13 minutes after man of the match John Robertson rifled home the opener inside 40 seconds and then Jack Leitch headed home from a Robertson cross to put Mick Kennedy's men in dreamland.The Honest Men hauled themselves back into in the second half when Jay Henderson pounced on a slack pass back from David Ferguson to make it 2-1, before Marco Rus netted in 68 minutes to restore parity and seemingly give the visitors the momentum.However, Kilby produced a tremendous response to go back in front just three minutes later when new signing Ian McShane picked out Cami Elliott in the box and he headed home what proved to be the winner on a memorable night at K-Park.Kennedy told BBC Alba: "When we go into these games against teams of a higher opposition, I think it is so important to impose ourselves on the game.

If we try and sit in and be compact, I think at some point they'll hurt you because of the quality they have got."So we try and impose ourselves as much as we possibily could.

At times it was tricky, but to be fair to the boys they stuck to it, they had a lot of belief and confidence and just worked their way through it, and in the end we got over the line."The start comes from the belief the boys have in themselves before