Kilbirnie Ladeside manager Stephen Swift has issued a ‘same again’ plea to his players as he sets his sights on the Super League Premier Division title.

Ladeside finished third behind Hurlford United and champions Auchinleck Talbot last term, but Swift is aiming for top-flight glory this time around.

The Blasties boss revealed he’s retained the majority of last season’s squad and says he’s hoping his relatively unchanged side can go all the way this year and capture the Premier Division crown.

He said: “I wanted to keep the same squad as last year because all the boys did incredibly well last season.

“We finished third last year but I actually thought we could have done better; we were much better than your average third place side.

“So that’ll be the aim for this year to do that little bit better, I hope we will go from strength to strength this season.

“We want to win this league and I honestly believe we have the quality to do just that so we’ll be aiming to mount a title challenge again this season that’s for sure.”

Swift added: “This year is probably the first time since I joined Kilbirnie that we haven’t been forced to rebuild the squad over the close season.

“Over the past few season Mark Crilly (former assistant) and I had to basically bring in a whole new team for one reason or another but that’s not the case this year.

“My aim was to keep the nucleus of the team together and I’ve done that, so now my focus is on getting the team ready to challenge for the Premier Division title.”

Swift may not need to build his team from the ground up this year, but that hasn’t stopped him from dipping into the transformer to improving his squad.

A total of four new players have joined the Kilbirnie club and Swift is hoping they’ll have what it takes to blast The Blasties all the way to the top.

He said: “I have added a few new players to the squad, I’ve brought in Chris Malone and Ciaran McElroy from Petershill.

“Chris had a previous spell here so we know what we are getting with him and Ciaran is a great talent.

“Chris is a left-back and that was one of the main areas I wanted to strengthen so I’m delighted to be able to bring Chris in to do that.

“Ciaran is a wide player which we also needed, he used to play for Queen's Park so that just shows you the quality he has.

“However, he has had a few barren years recently, but I’m hoping he can get back to his best here and do well for us.”

Swift added: “I’ve also signed David Green from Blantyre Vics, he’s a powerful midfielder who will add some much needed physicality to our midfield.

“Ian Grey is also set to come back to the club, he left us last time due to work commitments, but he’s back and I’m delighted about that.”

Elsewhere on the junior scene, former Rangers and Hibernian midfielder Kevin Thomson is set to make a shock move to junior football.

The 31-year-old former Scotland international is said to be close to completing a move to East Premier League champions Tranent Juniors.

Tranent boss Gary Small revealed Thompson had trained with the club earlier in the week and says that any deal would be done by the end of play on Sunday.

He said: "Kevin trained with us on Tuesday night and he said afterwards he was really impressed by the standard, he really enjoyed it."

“Bringing him in would be a huge coup for this club, and the local community. If any deal is to be done, it’ll be done by the end of the week.”