YOKER Athletic player/manager Steven Reilly insists Saturday’s 5-1 win over Kilwinning Rangers at Holm Park in their league opener was the team’s best performance since he joined the club.

This season will be Reilly’s second as a player for the Whe Ho but first as a manager after he took the reins following John McAulay’s departure in the summer.

After some experimenting in the Sectional League Cup, Reilly was delighted with his side’s show when the serious business of the Super League First got under way.

He said: “That’s the best performance I’ve been involved in during my time at Yoker. It’s just the first game of the new season but the boys were outstanding in every level.

“Everything we did fell into place on Saturday, our work rate and pressing to stop them from playing was great. On the attack they couldn’t cope with us, everything we worked on in pre-season came off in the game and the boys looked much fitter.

“Kilwinning are a good side and I’m sure they will be up there at the end of the season.” Whe Ho went one goal behind in the 25th minute, but responded in the best possible fashion with goals from Mark Maxwell (2), David Crerand, Gary Arbuckle and Michael Bailey putting the Ayrshire side to the sword.

Reilly admitted his side have set down a marker for the season with that performance but urged caution at this early stage in the campaign.

He said: “Losing the goal was the disappointing thing about yesterday, it was a poor goal to lose. We seem to lose that type of goal fairly regular, we lost a couple in pre-season where it’s just a long ball forward after we lose possession. I thought it was offside, but the boys showed great character after that.

“The boys have bought into the way we want to play the game. We know if we can stop teams from playing we will hurt them on the break, we have pace in wide areas and guys that can go and score goals.”