GLENAFTON Athletic boss Paul Paton says his side have already shown that "things are going in the right direction".

The New Cumnock side picked up their first league victory since the second match of the season when they defeated Shotts Bon Accord 3-2 at home on Saturday, October 26.

The win takes the Loch Park outfit five points clear of the West of Scotland Football League Premier Division relegation zone.

And following the victory, Paton was quick to heap praise on the character shown by his side - who trailed twice during the 90 minutes.

After falling behind twice in the first half, Hugh Kerr levelled on two occasions - before new signing Chris Erskine struck a stunning winner with 10 minutes remaining.

“I’m delighted with the character," Paton commented, "to go 1-0 down and 2-1 down and still to come back and win shows we’ve got a bit of spirit and fight there.

“It shows the staff that the players are playing for us as well – we’re absolutely delighted with them.”

(Image: Glenafton Athletic)

The manager was also pleased to see his side showing signs of progress just three weeks after the same opponent knocked his team out of the league cup with a 4-1 win at Loch Park.

He added: “We’ve come a long way in a few weeks but at the same time it’s only one win. We need to go and put a run of good results together, but the signs are good.

“I feel as if we are improving, we’ve brought in good players and things are going in the right direction.

“We brought in guys that want to play for us, we’ve obviously had to let a few go but it’s not because they are not good players – we just had to have our own stamp on things.

“If we kept going the way we were we would be getting the same results, we had to change a few things and we feel that has helped us.”

It was the impact of one of Paton's signings which made the difference on Saturday, with Erskine notching a superb goal to open his account for the club.

Paton continued: “It’s probably the best goal I have seen Glenafton score in my two and a bit years here.

“It just sums him up, it’s a touch of class. He’s not played for a year but you can see he’s getting better and fitter.

“If we can keep him on the pitch all year he’ll be a real threat to any team – he’ll always have that touch of class he showed on Saturday.”

The Glens are now without a fixture this coming weekend, before returning to league action on Saturday, November 9, when they host Troon - with kick off at 2pm.