REMAINING the only unbeaten side in senior men's football across Britain is becoming harder to ignore for Kelty Hearts.

But assistant manager Kevin McDonald believes that preserving and extending a run that currently sits at 16 matches can provide motivation for a high-flying squad that is looking to earn a second successive promotion for the club.

Since taking over from Barry Ferguson in the summer, Kevin Thomson has led his team to the top of the tree at Christmas in their first season in the SPFL, with Saturday's 4-0 win at Stranraer preserving their seven-point lead at the summit.

Forfar Athletic, who are second, had cut the gap to four with a four-goal win of their own at Edinburgh City on Friday evening, and McDonald was delighted with the statement Kelty made in response.

Sean Burns' own goal 10 minutes in, slicing into his own net when attempting to clear a corner, put the visitors ahead before Jordon Forster's header from Kallum Higginbotham's cross, and Nathan Austin's close-range finish from Kieran Ngweyna's centre, put them 3-0 up at the break.

Austin's second early in the second half, taking his tally for the season to 16 in 20 appearances in all competitions, put the seal on another impressive afternoon for Thomson's side, who have now netted 20 times in seven matches on the road.

On Boxing Day, they face another trip to third-placed Annan Athletic, as they attempt to keep an unbeaten run going that even captured the attention of Sky Sports last week.

"The longer it goes, the more it gets magnified, and then the pressure keeps growing because everybody wants to beat you," McDonald told Press Sport.

"Long may it continue but I'd imagine it will come to an end at some point, and every team knows they'll get plaudits when they do eventually beat us.

"It was nice to get a bit of recognition for the run but, again, it keeps highlighting it and then obviously it puts pressure on. Look, we've got good players, so they'll enjoy that, but Saturday was a banana skin with the Sky Sports report during the week, and the manager getting Manager of the Month the month before – it was all built up. We're absolutely delighted to come away with three points.

"The longer it goes, the more it's impossible to ignore, and it is something that you can use as motivation. It is something that we've spoken about and we've been using it as motivation going forward, but we're taking games in little blocks, and we've got two more in this block to try and get maximum points from.

"That's the main focus just now."

Reflecting on the victory at Stair Park, McDonald continued: "Obviously, to score that many goals away from home was massive. I think after Forfar's result on Friday night it was an even bigger game so we're all delighted we got the three points.

"They're not slipping up at all. Their form is just as good as ours. I think they've only lost one of their last nine, which was against us, so they're putting pressure on us which is expected.

"For them to play before us, bring it back down to four points and we had the two games in hand, and then us going to Stranraer, yeah you could argue it put a little bit of pressure on us.

"But we've got good players and to put a statement out by winning 4-0 away from home was perfect.

"They went with four up and we knew the spaces there'd be when we turned the ball over we would break on them quite quickly.

"That worked quite well. Both of our full backs were really aggressive and we got our chance off Kieran for Fash's (Austin's) goal. We did look at the video and the way Stranraer play, with them being so direct, we did manage to find little bits of quality when possible, but it was a scrappy game."

McDonald, who said midfielder Jamie Barjonas would be assessed this week after picking up a knock on Saturday, added that the club would be interested in adding to the squad in January if the right player became available but that their focus was on the Annan match, then Cowdenbeath's visit on January 2.

"We just need to try and keep that gap for as long as possible," he noted.

"You kind of half hope that Forfar slip up so the gap becomes bigger and give yourself a bigger cushion. But Forfar keep winning, they've got good players, so we expect that challenge to keep coming.

"We'll challenge Annan and then Cowdenbeath and we'll take it from there."