Russell admits golden run has helped confidence but insists still taking one game at a time

Mar 24 2011 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

IAIN RUSSELL insists he’d happily take title glory over a place in the club’s history books — despite only being five goals short of breaking a Livingston record.

The Lions hitman has gone goal crazy in recent weeks, slamming home eight goals in eight games including a run where he has netted in each of the last five matches.

His tally for the season is now 18, just four short of the club record for most goals scored in a single season – held by Leigh Griffiths (right), but Russell insists he isn’t bothered about personal milestones when there is a title to be won.

He said: “For me, the most important thing is to win the league. It would be selfish for me or anyone else to worry about how many goals they would score when we haven’t won the league.

“So until anything like that happens, I’ll keep focused on doing my best to help us win the league.

“I haven’t done anything differently. The team is doing well and creating plenty chances while we are also keeping clean sheets at the back too.

“It’s not down to me personally or any other individual player. We are all working hard and creating plenty of chances. I am missing some of them, too, but scoring a few as well.

“It is great for confidence and strikers do thrive on goals and if I play well but don’t score, I am disappointed. That’s just the way I am.

“I am really enjoying my all-round play and being given the chance to get more involved in trying to create goals, too.

“It has been a great spell and you can’t not be happy when you win 11 out of 12 games.”

Livingston currently sit 16 points ahead of Ayr United at the Second Division summit, albeit the Honest Men have three games in hand, to put one hand of the title trophy.

And Russell believes their title bid kicked into gear around 4:37pm on Saturday, January 29, when the Lions roared back from 3-2 down at home to East Fife to score two goals in the final few minutes.

Since then, Livingston have embarked on a stunning run of nine wins in 10 matches, in which they have rattled home 27 goals and only conceded a miserly three goals.

It is the kind of run which championship triumphs are built on but despite Livingston being well ahead of the chasing pack, Russell insists no one in the squad is looking beyond their next game.

He said: “Since the match against East Fife, we have gone on a good run.

“It has coincided with Kenny Deuchar signing, too, as we have won 11 times in 12 matches.

“I don’t know what it has been down to apart from us getting confidence from winning matches, scoring goals and keeping clean sheets.

“I think the turning point was maybe the home match against East Fife when we went 3-2 with 10 minutes to go before scoring two late goals to come back and win it. That gave us a lift.

“I know it is a cliche but we are all just looking to the next game week by week. We are winning but still not looking too far ahead.”

The 28-year-old striker has enjoyed a dream debut season in West Lothian and he believes the team spirit at the club helped him settle in immediately.

He added: “It has been a great first season so far. It can be hard coming into a new dressing room when you don’t know any of the players.

“But I’ve loved it since the day I signed. I went away at the start of pre-season to Belfast and roomed with Robbie Winters, who helped me settle in early and I’ve really enjoyed it.

“All the boys have a laugh and get on really well and we are all confident for the rest of the season. We haven’t been on a losing run this season which has helped.

“We did have a low point after our defeat at Peterhead but there hasn’t been a low point in terms of a period in the season where we’ve been losing games, so there has always been a good vibe about the place.”