JOHNSTONE Burgh manager Jamie McKim believes Lugar Boswell Thistle’s heavy defeat against Arthurlie last Wednesday made his team’s weekend trip to Rosebank Park tougher.

Lugar were on the wrong end of a 10-3 drubbing by high-flying Arthurlie a week ago before welcoming McKim’s team to Ayrshire on Saturday.

The Keanie Park men made it four wins on the bounce as a double from Nathan Marriott and a Ricky McArthur goal secured a 3-1 victory.

And, while it wasn’t a vintage performance from his Burgh players, McKim was pleased to see them grind out a result that lifted them to fifth place in Conference A of the West of Scotland Football League.

He told Gazette Sport: “It’s the fourth win on the trot and it’s all about trying to keep that continuity and momentum going.

“I don’t think there will be many easy games this season. Lugar lost 10-3 to Arthurlie on the Wednesday and I think that made the game more difficult for us on Saturday.

“If you’re in the Lugar dressing room, you want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

“We weren’t great on Saturday but we did enough. If you get three points away from home, you’re quite happy.”

Burgh opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark as a neat flick on from Marriott set up an opportunity for a cross that was turned home by McArthur at the back post.

The home side equalised in the early stages of the second half but McKim’s men regained the lead 15 minutes later when a set-piece was helped back across goal towards Marriott, who threw himself at the ball and found the net with a diving header.

And, with 15 minutes left to play, it was another header that made sure Burgh would earn all three points, as Marriott found himself unmarked at a corner-kick.

McKim said: “The only disappointment for me was the goal that we conceded but I’ll take that one on the chin.

“We changed our shape at half-time and conceded, so we had to revert back, but from then it was comfortable.”

Burgh welcome Whitletts Victoria to Keanie Park tonight, with the game kicking off at 7.15pm, before making a trip to Craigmark Burntonians on Saturday, with that match getting underway at 2pm.