EXPERIENCE is the key.

That’s according to Muirkirk boss George Grierson who watched on as his side racked up back to back wins on Saturday.

Grierson took over the Burnside Park hot seat in the summer and had the mammoth task of re-building his ‘Kirk side.

He was delighted to see his young side come from a goal down to beat Saltcoats 2-1 away from home at the weekend. The win comes hot on the heels of their hard fought 1-0 win over Lugar the previous week.

Grierson claims that his side are improving by the match as many of them adjust from boys club football to the junior ranks.

He said: “The last two weeks have been very good wins for us.

“Both of the wins were very different. On Saturday we showed different character coming from a goal down.

“There’s only two guys in the squad who were there last year and for many of the boys it was all about getting game time. You can see them improving and getting more confident by the game.

“They are cutting out the silly mistakes that they were making in pre season now and performances have been very good.” ‘Kirk now find themselves in 7th place in the Ayrshire District League with 6 points - more points than the racked up in the whole of last season.

Grierson added: “It’s weird. Everywhere we go people keep reminding us of where Muirkirk have been in the last few seasons, but we’re not interested in any of that. We are only interested in where we want to be this season.

“I usually set myself a target of hitting double figures, then when we do that I will reassess and set the next target.” The Burnside gaffer now has to refocus his side for cup duty as they travel to take on Johnstone Burgh in the first round of the West of Scotland Cup.

Grierson said “We could look at the cup game and say that it’s a bit of a distraction, I get that. We have won two in a row and we just want to keep racking up the points. But everybody wants to do well in the cups and if we win on Saturday to get through to the next round I will be delighted so it’s a welcome distraction to an extent.” Grierson is sweating over the availability of Gary Russell, who has a neck injury, and skipper Ross Elder, who picked up a hamstring strain.