Two hundred and fifty miles. That’s the round trip Stevenston’s Ricky Little makes every week to turn out in the Scottish Championship for Arbroath.

Now in his ninth season with the club, he admits where the club is now – top of the league with a game in hand – is “dreamland”.

Signed from Queen’s Park, where he played with Scotland captain Andrew Robertson, Ricky admitted: “It was a chance to play in a higher league. If I’m honest, I kind of saw it as ‘I’ll go for a season, hopefully do alright and get a move elsewhere’.

“But I’ve went, loved it and the team’s been really successful and climbed through the leagues.”

Having broken his foot in his first game for the club. It wasn’t the ideal start, but it’s safe to say things are looking a lot better now.

Ricky, who grew up in Stevenston and now lives in Kilwinning, added: “When we came into the league, we thought just enjoy it, cause the chances are we’re going back down, the boys have worked hard, the club’s worked hard and we’ve hopefully solidified ourselves as a Championship side.

“We’ve started the season well, it’s not been a fluke that we’ve ended up where we are just now, we’ve played everyone, and we’ve beat everyone in the league.”

As for the rest of the season, he said: “I think we need to try and go and win this league.”

Ricky added that their success has brought a lot more publicity, but it’s well deserved.

He added: “We’ve deserved it, the club’s done well, the stuff they’re doing off the field as well, the community side of things.”

A massive help in their success has been manager Dick Campbell, who Ricky described as “a classic character”.

He added: “He’s a great laugh, I think that’s what he’s really good at, he brings the right type of players to the club. Training and games and everything, it’s not a carry on but he knows when to have a laugh.

"His old motto is there’s a time to work and there’s a time to play and he definitely doesn’t mix them up.”

He also acknowledged just how big the rest of the season is for the club.

Ricky said: “Where the club’s at is just dreamland for most of the fans and the team as well.

"You’ve got boys like myself that have been there since League Two, you think winning League Two is something else and you’ll maybe never experience it again.

“If we can go one further and win this, it’s going to be the biggest achievement in the club’s history.”