BURGH'S CASH FLOW IS NO GO

Published 1 Jul 2009 17:13

JOHNSTONE Burgh will come up against familiar faces in the opening fixtures of the season - but financial restrictions are threatening to derail another campaign for the Keanie Park side.

Money has been tight for Burgh for a number of years now and despite being in a more stable financial position that last year, the club will continue to run under the current budget.

The Johnstone outfit have recently had to tap into the amateur leagues in a bid to cut the costs of wages and it looks like the trend is set to continue with assistant manager Eddie McKim lamenting his side"s inability to strengthen for the new season.

He said: 'Unfortunately, we can"t really do anything on the transfer market because of financial restraints on the club.

'In the past, we"ve signed players from juvenile and amateur sides but we haven"t been able to get much experience in.

'We also lost our main sponsor as Somerfield is between taken over by the Co-operative, so they won"t be sponsoring us next year.

'The damage to the park has obviously cost us too.

'We"ve had guys in the park before and we"ve said to them they can sit and have a laugh and a few drinks just don"t damage the park or any of the terracing - but that"s life.'

The very little experience the Burgh currently has, could be on its way out of the club as veteran target man David Brolly may be on the verge of retirement.

The 37-year-old will report for pre-season training with the rest of the squad before deciding on his future.

The Burgh kick-off the Sectional League Cup on August 1 against Greenock before games against Port Glasgow, Vale of Leven and Renfrew, 11 days later.

The Burgh have been given a tough home tie in the West of Scotland Cup against Premier League side Arthurlie.

And fellow relegated outfit, Yoker, is the destination for the first game of the new League campaign on August 15.

McKim added: 'Yoker are one of the few teams we managed to beat at home last year.

'They are sort of like us with the financial restrictions.

'They have been going down our line, bringing in young guys. Both sides are two maybe looking for promotion.

'The cups are extra for us - it"s great we have the cup ties and that they are local but our priority is the league.

'If you look at the cup ties we had last year, we took Pollok to the wire and beat Renfrew - we beat better sides but we would really rather have three points.

'It would have been great to win a cup but not at the expense of being relegated.'

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This article appeared in The Gazette 01 Jul 09

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