The Buffs were 4-0 winners at home to Dalbeattie Star on Saturday as their nearest challengers were in cup action.

The hosts led from the front with Ryan Wilson notching inside the opening 10 minutes, though it proved to be the only goal of the first period.

However, Kilwinning put their foot down in the second half as a Daniel Gray double and Nick Lockhart finish secured all three points.

(Image: Kilwinning Rangers)

“It certainly wasn’t as comfortable as a scoreline suggests," Strain commented, "particularly in the first half.

“We never played well, we never created as much as we would like, but we got a goal and we did the job.

“We weren’t happy overall with the performance, we can certainly perform better.

“That’s been the case over the last couple of weeks but the pleasing thing, obviously, is to get the result.”

Strain believes that changes to the starting line-up may have hampered his side.

Though he had high praise for young goalkeeper Ben Coutts, he kept a clean sheet in his debut first team appearance.

(Image: Kilwinning Rangers)

He added: “There were a lot of personnel changes on Saturday, for one reason or another, and sometimes the fluency is missing.

“Young Ben Coutts had to play in goals for us, that’s his debut appearance, he done really well.

“He made a crucial save at 1-0 to us midway through the first half and was assured in everything he done.

“I’m really pleased to get Ben, who’s been through the youth academy, through to make his debut.

“A couple of other boys haven’t played for a while, or have been in and out the team, came in and, with that, sometimes consistency of performance isn’t where you want it to be, but it benefits everybody.”

Strain is now challenging his side to put in stronger performances against teams further down the standings, admitting his side have already proved they can step up for big occasions.

He continued: “We just need to make sure we work on our deficiencies at the moment and iron them out.

“When we’ve played teams in the big, high octane, games – we’ve been excellent.

“These games where the onus is maybe on us to provide the attacking emphasis, we’ve not been as fluent as we’d like to be, we need to work on that.”

The Buffs Park boss says he is glad to have more time to work on that this week with his side not in action on Saturday.

Kilwinning will return to league duty on Tuesday (October 27) as they host Cumbernauld Colts before travelling to Newton Stewart on Hallowe’en.

(Image: Kilwinning Rangers)

Strain said: “It gives us a good week to prepare and iron out some of the things we weren’t happy with in the last wee while.

“It gives us a good week of training and time on the training pitch with the guys to tidy up on the basics.

“Then we’ve got the game on Tuesday and again Saturday, we’ll look to take maximum points from those games.

“We just need to make sure we prepare well for the games and if we do that then we’ll find ourselves continuing in the same kind of position we are in at the moment.”