COMEBACK striker Alan Forrest is going all out to win the league and re-establish himself in the Ayr United first team following his timely intervention in Saturday's home clash with Queen's Park.

The Ayr United Academy graduate is fit again following a spate of injuries and came off the bench to score the victory-clinching goal in the 3-2 triumph against the Spiders.

This triumph set them up nicely for their Christmas night out in Dublin on Saturday.

United are now five points ahead of second-placed Raith Rovers with a better goal difference following their draw against Alloa Athletic in the televised Sunday afternoon game.

And they look well placed to make a strong challenge for the league title in the weeks and months ahead.

They have now watched the 30-year-old record of Ally MacLeod's team, who won eight games in a row on the way to lifting the old Scottish Second Division in 1987-88.

But Forrest said: "We don't think about that, we just take it each game at a time."

The young striker added: "It's obviously good to come off the bench and to score the winner is brilliant. It's good the game finished as it did as we finished our night on a high.

"The substitutions worked for us, it wasn't the prettiest but we got the three points. I have had a few niggly injuries and it's been stop-start and I have come back too soon a few times. There is a lot of competition for places in the team but I will keep working hard. The main thing is to get the three points, it's a good record and hopefully we can see it out as long as possible.

"We have a really good squad and the players are flying so there's a lot of competition for places. We play East Fife away on Saturday and will be a different kind of game from Saturday but we will be going there aiming to get the three points."

Manager Ian McCall took a lot of positives from the game and said: "I thought Queens Park deserved more than that from the game but before they scored we should have been 3-0 up - we missed two or three really good chances. I thought Lawrence Shankland and Craig Moore were excellent and Michael Moffat missed a couple of chances he could have scored with.

"But sometimes you have to dig in and grind our results and it was good to pick up the three points."