Johnstone Burgh boss Jamie McKim couldn’t hide his frustration at the weekend after his side’s West of Scotland first round tie away to Wishaw Juniors was called off due to a frozen pitch - the only match in the country to fall victim of the weather.

Fresh from extending their winning run to an incredible 11 games in all competitions last week and looking to test themselves against West Region League One side Wishaw, McKim’s men were chomping at the bit to get underway at the Beltane on Saturday only for match officials to deny them the chance.

With no other match in the country affected by a frozen pitch, questions were unsurprisingly raised after the announcement on Wishaw’s social media channels.

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However, the Burgh gaffer refused to be drawn into that conversation and placed his trust with Wishaw and the match officials.

But that didn’t stop McKim letting out his frustration, with the boss left disappointed at a missed opportunity.

“To be the only game in the West Region not to get the go ahead was really disappointing,” McKim told Gazette Sport. “It’s very frustrating for us that it just keeps this stop-start run of games going - we’ve only had a handful of games over the last month due to call-offs. 

“I’ve heard all of the rumours regarding the postponement but I’ve just got to hope and believe that Wishaw did everything in their power to get that game on.

“Whether they did everything they could to get it on on Saturday is down to them, only they know. I put my trust in them and believe what they say - I won’t question the integrity of the club.

“What I will say is it was a good chance to build on our excellent run and give some boys game time. It was also a brilliant chance to test ourselves against a team we want to be playing next season, so I’m angry that chance went out the window.

“When you’re on a good run like ours, you want to be constantly playing. I can see the boys are all desperate for the next game to come. They’re playing extremely well and winning on top of that - when you get the winning feeling, you want it more and more. It’s just unfortunate that we’ve not had a lot of games recently.”

Weather permitting, Burgh will make the trip to South Lanarkshire this weekend to take on Forth Wanderers in league business.

The Johnstone side got their 2019/20 league campaign up and running with a 2-0 win over Forth back in early August.

However, McKim is well aware that a much-improved Wanderers will pose a serious threat to his side’s winning run.

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He added: “Forth will be really tough. We beat them 2-0 earlier in the season but they’ve changed manager since then and have added to their squad quite a bit so it will be a completely different animal we’re up against.

“They’re right up there in the league challenging so we know to expect a tough one.

“Let’s be honest, every time we play right now, teams will be looking at us wanting to be the ones to stop our run. It’s down to us to keep the standards extremely high, keep this winning run going and not to allow that to happen.”

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