Largs Thistle boss Bryan Slavin said he believes the side can still push for the championship next season, despite the high competition expected.

With Shotts and Cumnock coming down from the Premier, and high-scoring Winton and Kilwinning getting promoted from the Ayrshire District, some great matches are expected for Largs when the season kicks off on Saturday 30 August.

But gaffer Bryan is fully confident, and said: “The desire is to win the league - nothing short of that, given the form that we showed at the end of the season, I think it is entirely possible. I don’t really care that everyone says it is going to be a very competitive league, aye it will be.

“I was always 100% confident we were going to stay up last season. I was fully aware that one or two were saying we needed to get a striker in, and I was confident with the boys we had that we could turn it around, and with hard work, we were able to do it.

“With the form we produced in the last 10 games of the season, it was promotion material without a shadow of a doubt, potentially even league winning material, and I am fully confident that we can transfer that into next season, I don’t have any doubt- specially with the players we are going to add - that we can go and win the league - that is the intention.

“An acceptable outcome would be finishing second, or the play-off at third, but anything below that for Arnie and me is unacceptable. I could sit here and say progress is getting into the top half of the league but we want to do things a wee bit quicker than that - and that will be our goal to win the league, and I don’t see any reason we should drop our standards. The boys we have got are good enough and mentally stronger than a lot of the teams out there, and I believe that can carry us a long way.”