JOHNSTONE Burgh boss Jamie McKim believes the right decision was made as his team’s game against St Anthony’s on Saturday was abandoned after less than one minute of football.

The match was scrapped after visiting goalkeeper Kenny McLachlan landed awkwardly when collecting John Ball’s cross and seriously injured his knee in the opening 60 seconds.

McLachlan is likely to spend the week in hospital and was scheduled to receive a MRI scan on Monday.

READ MORE: Burgh postponement no surprise for Jamie McKim

McKim agrees that abandoning the game was the right thing to do but believes the referee was too quick to reach his decision.

The Burgh manager said: “At the time, the goalkeeper was fine because he’s done it before and knew what he had done.

“He wanted to move off the pitch to let the game carry on but the Ants staff didn’t want to even attempt it.

“The referee was very keen to abandon the match. He tried to do it as soon as the injury happened.

“I said to him to consider the fact that there could be an ambulance at the stadium within 10 minutes, so why would you abandon it if you’re not giving it a chance to go ahead?

“I’ve never seen a referee so desperate to get away from a game. I couldn’t understand it.

“We decided to give it until 2.30pm and then he blew the whistle at 2.25pm, which at the time was the right call.

“I thought that was as long as we could give it and the ambulance didn’t show up for three hours anyway.

“The minimum I wanted was to give the game a chance and the guy was always going to live. It was just a bad, unfortunate injury.

“The safety of all players is paramount.”

The Burgh boss felt his team were up for the game before the abandonment and hopes that level of motivation is something they can carry into future games as they look to keep up their outside hopes of promotion.

He said: “We were in good shape for the game.

“I saw a level of motivation on Saturday that I’ve wanted to see for a while and that’s got something to do with some of the experience that we’ve brought in.

“We’ll be ready for the Ants next time we play them.

“We didn’t train on Saturday because I thought, if we did, all we would do is cut the park up and with us being at home next week that’s not what we wanted.

“We’re starting double sessions on Tuesdays after a deal we’ve struck up with Energie Fitness, in Paisley.

READ MORE: McKim refuses to give up Johnstone Burgh promotion hopes

“We’ll go there for a 45-minute gym session before training and be ready for a tough game against Saltcoats Victoria.”

Burgh welcome Saltcoats to Keanie Park on Saturday, with the game kicking off at 2pm.