JOHNSTONE Burgh progressed to the second round of the West of Scotland Cup on Saturday courtesy of a 1-0 victory over Ayrshire cracks Muirkirk.

Jason Hardie opened the scoring inside the opening minute to set Burgh up nicely, but they failed to capitalise on their early dominance and ended up having to see the game out one goal to the better.

A red card to centre back Gareth Brown added to a frustrating afternoon for the management team but either way they now progress into the next round.

Manager David Brolly told Gazette Sport: “We have made it through to the next round which is the most important thing but it wasn’t exactly the performance that we would have asked for.

“The performance wasn’t good enough from the boys and they will need to get better next week if they want to win.

“In some ways I think the early goal did us no favours at all and we seemed to sit back after that.

“Gareth getting sent off just made things harder for us and it wasn’t exactly the most comfortable finish, but we are through and that is the main thing.”