Leith bid to fend off the challengers

The Central Taxis First Division has always been a difficult league from which to gain promotion and this season is proving to be no exception.

The pace-setters at the halfway stage are Leith Athletic, who only joined the East of Scotland League in 2008 and are now enjoying their third season in the First Division. They currently top the table with 30 points from their 11 games having suffered only one defeat, much to the delight of manager Willie McFarlane. "If somebody had offered me this position at the beginning of the season then I would have bitten their hand off," he said.

"I would love to win the title although promotion is the most important thing. We want to play the big guys and test ourselves against the top teams like Spartans, Whitehill Welfare and Edinburgh University.

"Our league position is a combination of the hard work of the committee who run a well organised club. Everyone pulls together and some of our squad have now been together for six or seven years since they were 12, 13 and 14 years old. We are a young, talented side complemented with some experienced players like Gary Black who is a fantastic player for the club.

"He does a great job on the park but he does much more than that. He never misses a training session, he is always first at the training ground, his attitude is superb in the dressing room and everything about him is positive and encouraging."

Leith, however, cannot expect to have an easy passage with Gala Fairydean, Easthouses Lily and Gretna 2008 all breathing down their necks.

Easthouses manager David McQueenie said: "We are eight points behind Leith but with a game in hand and we still have to play them twice so we are definitely in there and that is the main thing.

"This league is going to be very tight again but we have given ourselves a chance in what is a mega-difficult league to get out of. Promotion does not come easy and teams have to work hard although we have set ourselves up well for the second half of the season.

"Promotion is what we want although it would obviously be good to win the league. We want to play against the big teams week in, week out.

"Our four games against Gala and Leith are going to be huge and we will be treating them all as cup finals."