THOMAS REILLY believes that Kelty Hearts can’t rely on Forfar Athletic dropping points to secure the League Two title and must “keep winning”.

The 27-year-old midfielder is refusing to read much into the nine-point cushion that his side have at the summit as the top two prepare to go head-to-head this weekend.

Reilly’s former club welcome Kevin Thomson’s team to Station Park and, having played a game more, it’s a crucial match for the Loons if they are to try to push Kelty for the championship.

Having swapped Angus for Fife in 2019, the former St Mirren youth product – who came off the bench during Saturday’s Scottish Cup fifth-round defeat at the Buddies – is well aware of the quality within the opposition ranks.

Speaking to Press Sport, he said: “I’m still close with a lot of the boys and they’re right good players and a right good team.

“They’ve probably had a lot more draws than they wanted; that’s probably been their downfall. The games against us (a 2-2 draw in August, and a 1-0 win in November) have been pretty close.

“They’re a good side and they will stick with us the whole season because they’re a good team. We need to keep winning our games and not rely on them dropping points.

“As long as we keep doing that, we know that it’s in our hands and that we’ve got a gap where we need to keep winning. If that’s the case, then we’ll win the league.”

After featuring in all four of Kelty’s Premier Sports Cup group stage matches, and the opening-day league win over Cowdenbeath, a serious ankle injury sidelined Reilly until the beginning of December.

All but one of his seven appearances since then have been from the bench, emphasising the strength of the squad Thomson has at his disposal, and their rise to the top of the league hasn’t surprised him.

“I’ll be honest, with the squad that we’ve got, the players and the way I see everybody in training, I think it’s gone as well as we probably think, and I think that’s the winning mentality in the team,” Reilly continued.

“We saw this coming, that we were going to be pushing at the top. There’s no point in coming into the league and making up the numbers; there would be absolutely no point in us winning the (Lowland) league last year.

“You want to come in and have a go. This is an ambitious club, not just for the players, for the fans and for the management and everybody behind the scenes. We want to go and keep smiles on people’s faces, not just come up and linger about League Two.

“As a squad, we wanted to make sure we were going for it. When we got our first defeat (of the season) against Annan (on Boxing Day), it was incredible how down everybody was for a few days in the squad, because we felt we had let everybody down and let ourselves down.

“We did on the day but, when you sit back after a couple of days and look where we’d actually got through that season so far, come the new year, then we’d done pretty well.

“We re-evaluated where we wanted to be and what the next target was, and that is to stay at the top, and hopefully open a gap that allows us to win the league as soon as possible.

“It maybe shows more now, how well this club’s run, how well this club’s doing, and the ambitions of the club now we’re in League Two, and people are maybe taking a wee bit more notice.”