IRVINE Victoria boss Ben Carson has challenged his players to "kick on" after ending a five-match winless run.
The Victoria Park outfit were resounding 6-2 winners on Saturday as they claimed derby bragging rights from North Ayrshire rivals Saltcoats Victoria.
Played at Kilbirnie's Valefield Park, it took until the 25th minute for the deadlock to be broken in the WoSFL Fourth Division clash - with Youssef Daouichy heading home for Carson's men.
Ryan Morrow, Aidan Boon and Dale McClelland added further strikes in the 10 minutes leading up to the break as Irvine took a comfortable lead into half-time.
Shortly after the restart, Rudi Johnston got one back for Saltcoats - though Boon's second of the afternoon restored Irvine's four-goal advantage shortly afterwards.
Saltcoats refused to give up with Adam Kamara cutting the deficit once more on 53 minutes though Irvine had the last say as Sam Trousdale notched the final goal shortly after the hour mark.
“It was good to get three points," Carson said. "We’ve not been in the best of form -performances have been alright we just weren’t getting over the line.
“We were just trying to get back to getting three points and trying to get as many wins together as we can before the end of the season.
“Hopefully we can kick on now and get a good run going between now and the end of the season.”
Carson now hopes to see his side secure a promotion spot as quickly as possible. The Vics currently hold a top eight place with just six matches left to play.
“We put ourselves in a hard position," Carson added. "We were flying until around Christmas time – we were right in amongst it.
“My ambition at the start of the season was to win the league, we’ve kind of fell short.
“It was just important that we get into the top eight as quick as we can – if we didn’t it would be a disaster.
“Saturday will definitely help that and we’ve got a good run-in fixture-wise until the end of the season. It’s important we climb back up as many as we can.”
The Irvine boss says confidence remains high at Victoria Park as they look to end the campaign on a high.
Carson continued: “It’s been about keeping the confidence up, especially when there is not much in the games.
“You need to remind the boys how well we’ve done this year. Sometimes when you’re on a bad run you look at the negatives all the time.
“We’ve done well, if we go and finish fourth or third it’s been a successful season, and we’ve been promoted.
“I think we know we had an opportunity to go and win the league but we just didn’t have the strength in depth to do that."
Irvine Victoria will be out of action this weekend with an away trip to Campbeltown Pupils next up on Saturday, April 18.
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