Maryhill boss Jim Delaney is hoping to deliver a knockout blow to Dunipace on Saturday – before following up with points wins over both Johnstone Burgh and St Roch’s.

The Hill are moving through the gears after a shaky period early in the season that brought four straight defeats in the Central District First Division.

Since then, though, the famous old Lochburn Park side have chalked up eight wins and a draw from their last nine games.

It’s a record the envy of many in the junior game, and Delaney puts in down to hard work AND boxing clever during the awful run of postponed fixtures from October to January.

He said: “There was a massive hole in the middle of the season where we hardly played a game.

"We trained twice a week as normal but had the guys in for a session if the game was off. The weather was obviously too bad to train outdoors but we’d go to Soccer World along the M8 and train inside.

“We also played five-a-side games, which gave us a right good boost in terms of fitness.”

But Jim also turned to the ‘gym’, and had something else up his sleeve – which left his players picking themselves up off the canvas!

He explained: “We took the players to circuit training every couple of weeks at the Rob Roy Boxing Club up in Balornock, and that was a real boost to their fitness.

“We would only throw it in there now and again to mix it up and keep things fresh, but it has definitely boosted things on the park because you can see how fit the players are, and the boxing training has really helped with upper body strength.

“Some of our players are real seasoned campaigners at junior level, but had never done anything like it, and they absolutely loved it.

“We were dealing mostly with personal trainer, Steven Harvey, and he really put them through the wringer.

“Along with three sessions of regular football training every week, it has now given us a real edge as we move towards the end of the season.

“It would’ve been easy for me to simply go and watch a game on a Saturday and give the players the day off, but the hard work is now paying off.”

The Hill are on that fantastic nine-match unbeaten run at the moment, but lying in wait this weekend are bottom markers Dunipace – and Delaney insists his players will be in the right frame of mind for the contest.

He said: “Even though they are bottom of the league, we know that every single team in our league is capable of beating one another.

“We will approach the game the way we do every other, by giving our opponents tremendous respect. Let’s not forget Dunipace are fighting for their lives, and we obviously have a different agenda.”

Delaney added: “This is my first season as manager of Maryhill, and while we started the league campaign brightly, we hit a bad dip in form, where results were poor.

“But I had a feeling we would get through it, especially as training was always lively and the players were remaining positive. I always felt we were just one win away from turning it around, and thankfully that’s the way it proved.”

But no one at Lochburn is talking titles, and Delaney said: “We still have 11 league games to play, which is almost half the season.

“We know we’re doing the right things at the moment, but we have some good, experienced players in there and they know how quickly things can change in football.

“I’m really enjoying my first season at the club, and I’ve brought in a coach, Paul Young, who was manager of Drumchapel Amateurs. He has hit the ground running and developed a really good relationship with the players.”

After three clean sheets in a row, Hill lost an early goal at Larkhall last Saturday, but battled manfully to secure a 3-2 win.

The gaffer said: “We dominated large parts of the game after losing the early goal and scored twice after the break. Larkhall equalised with five minutes to go but we grabbed the winner right at the death, through our captain Paul Callender.

“After this Saturday, we have two games at home, against Johnstone Burgh and St Roch’s, and it will be good to get back playing at Lochburn again.

“It will be a month since we’ve played at home, but our groundsman David Scanlin has done a terrific job on the park and the boys can’t wait to get back out there.

“We are happy with the way things are going at the moment but no one at the club is getting carried away, and that’s important.”