KELTY HEARTS captain Reece Lyon has played down speculation linking him with a move away from the club.

Last week, reports elsewhere suggested that the 23-year-old could be set for a New Central Park departure, with League One rivals Hamilton Academical touted as a possible destination.

Midfielder Lyon has been a key part of player / manager Michael Tidser's team in his first season in charge, having made 27 appearances in all competitions since arriving in the summer after leaving hometown club Greenock Morton.

He's also pitched in with seven goals and has assumed the armband following the departure of Tam O'Ware in December.

Speaking after Saturday's 5-0 loss at Stirling Albion, Lyon said: "I've seen all the stuff but I'm just concentrating on Kelty until anything otherwise. I'm a contracted player here until the summer, so I'll just be concentrating on Kelty."

Lyon is determined to lead the team into turning around their form - they haven't won in their last seven matches going into this weekend's match at League One's bottom side Edinburgh City - and is pleased he has the trust of his boss to skipper them.

"It's good. The gaffer's put his belief in me. I feel as if I've done pretty well first part of the season, but we just can't let our standards drop, and we need to keep going for the last 3-4 months, whatever's left," he continued.

"First and foremost we need to stay well clear of the bottom. I know we've got ambitions, but we'll keep that inside. We need to stay well clear of the bottom and try and just keep picking up results.

"Last week (at Ayr United in the Scottish Cup, a game Kelty lost 3-0) I felt as if we dominated most of the game, and we just didn't look like scoring. Today, I felt as if we didn't dominate the game, and, again, we just didn't look like scoring. It's two 90 minutes that we've just not even looked close to scoring a goal.

"It's not as if we've had loads of chances, they've hit us on the counter and beat us 5-0. They've actually battered us, to be fair, for 90 minutes and then beat us 5-0. I think we need to work out how to create better chances for ourselves.

"We've got full belief in the squad we've got. At the start of the season, you've seen that we can score goals, and we've got the exact same players here, and we've got even more quality now.

"The last two or three games, it's just been a difficult one, but I can't really put my finger on it. It's a bad day at the office. I'm pretty sure every team in this league will probably have one at some point.

"We got beat 5-1 against Falkirk (in September), we brushed it aside and we went on a good wee run, so hopefully this can give us a wee rocket that we need, and we can push on next week."