Keith assistant manager Jamie Lennox hailed their win over Formartine United as the best result of he and Dean Donaldson’s time in charge of the club.
Goals from James Brownie and Gregor MacDonald gave the Maroons a 2-1 victory at North Lodge Park last night.
Lennox and Donaldson took charge of the Kynoch Park club two years ago and the former said he was proud of the win.
Lennox said: “That’s our best result of the season by far and probably the best result we’ve had since myself and Dean took over.
“We have done well against the so-called bigger and better teams but then we seem to fall that bit short when it comes to getting a result.
“So this win gets a monkey off our back and now hopefully the players believe they can do that on a weekly basis. We believe we have a good squad, but we’ve criticised the players for not having enough belief in themselves.
“We went in leading 1-0 at half-time and we told them to believe and even when it went to 1-1 we got the reaction we were looking for, so credit to the players.”
After the disappointment of a 1-0 loss to Huntly on Saturday, Lennox was pleased with the way Keith responded.
He added: “The boys to a man were different class and thoroughly deserved to come away with the win.
“We demand standards every week and after our performance against Huntly, we asked for a reaction and we got it.
“All over the park we were excellent. We were harrying and tackling throughout.
“We took our chances when we got them. We didn’t create many on Saturday, but we did in this game.”
Keith took the lead after 11 minutes when MacDonald’s corner from the left side was headed into the bottom right corner by BROWNIE at close range.
The Maroons had further chances to add to their lead in the first period with Michael Selfridge firing over, Craig MacAskill hitting the bar with a free-kick from 30 yards and MacDonald working United keeper Kevin Main from another dead ball situation.
Formartine responded in the second half and levelled on 55 minutes when Craig McKeown’s through ball sent Jordan LEYDEN clear down the left and he slotted a shot past Keith goalie David Dey.
Following the equaliser Dey denied Scott Lisle twice in quick succession before the visitors grabbed the winner on 67 minutes when MacDONALD lobbed a fine first time finish beyond Main from the right side of the area.
Formartine player-manager Paul Lawson started himself in a 3-5-2 formation and said: “We’re disappointed because we didn’t play well and I’ll take my share of the blame because we changed the shape and it didn’t work. But regardless of formations, if the effort is lacking you’re in trouble and it was a combination of those things that led to the result.”