Jamie McKim has urged his players to remain mentally strong after yet another of their matches fell victim to the weather.

Keanie Park was frozen solid on Saturday, with an early pitch inspection confirming the obvious after plummeting temperatures on Friday night.

Set to welcome Ardeer Thistle for just their tenth league match of the season, McKim’s side were left frustrated once again, having already suffered seven league postponements so far this season.

The gaffer was hoping to use Saturday’s match as a chance to bounce back from the previous weekend’s agonising Scottish Junior Cup exit but was instead left disappointed.

“That was a frustrating one but I went down to see Keanie Park on Saturday morning, so it was no great surprise,” said McKim. “It would have been unrealistic to expect anything else, considering the weather and the forecast going into the weekend, but it was still disappointing.

“These are the things that are out of our control, so it’s important to be strong enough mentally to ignore these situations, keep going and pick up where we left off in previous matches.

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“It is hard for the boys who are putting in the work twice a week in training only to see their Saturdays taken away from them. It’s been however long without a league match now, so it is frustrating and it does test them both mentally and physically, but it’s just one of these things and I’m confident we’ll cope with that side of it.

“We just need to be patient and make sure we do the business when the games do get the go-ahead, as we’ve done so far all season.”

Weather permitting, Burgh welcome Glasgow side Ashfield to Keanie Park this weekend, with McKim confident the surface will be playable.

He added: “Keanie Park is looking good right now. There’s a thaw, so we’re hoping the weather allows it to go ahead. We’re confident it will go ahead and confident we can get another good result against Ashfield.

“They will provide a tough test and have a lot of good players. There are a couple of positives for us in that that they’re missing a few key players, so we’re all looking forward to that one.”

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