Johnstone Burgh boss Jamie McKim paid tribute to his players for keeping the ball on the deck despite the rain lashing in their faces.
With the conditions turning biblical at Keanie Park on Saturday, McKim feared his side might revert to long ball tactics as so many teams do when the weather turns sour.
But Burgh held firm to their desire to keep playing progressive, passing football, with Jojo Gillespie, Brian Connor and Kieran Brophy all netting to fire their side into the third round of the South Challenge Cup.
There they will meet fellow First Division side Rossvale, with McKim looking forward to trying to steer the club to cup success this season.
McKim said: “It was horrendous conditions on Saturday. When the rain and wind is like that it can be a real leveller.
“You always go into every game wanting a performance and a result, but when the rain was lashing down early on the main thing was just to get through it and get our name in the hat for the next round.
“I felt we controlled the game. They defended well but we were the ones looking to create and I have to credit the boys because we played some great stuff.
“We moved the ball well and could have scored more on the day if we’d been a bit more ruthless in front of goal.
“We didn’t just go long, which would have been the easy thing to do given the conditions.
“I was proud of them and now we’ve got another competitive game against Rossvale in the next round.
“We could have had an easier draw, but with no disrespect to Rossvale we want to be competing with the big boys in cup competitions.
“Hopefully we can make it through to the next round and show what we’re capable of further down the line.”
McKim believes Saturday’s clash would never have made kick-off a year or two ago given the intense rainfall in Renfrewshire.
Fixture postponements have been a common occurrence at Keanie Park in winter months, but McKim feels the club’s heavy investment in the surface will pay off this year and in future campaigns.
McKim said: “There’s no chance that Campbeltown game would have went ahead without the amount of money the club have invested in the surface recently.
“There are always going to be some postponements over the winter months at this level, but we’ve often been playing catch up with the fixture list due to games being called off here.
“We don’t have an Astro park, but now we’ve got an excellent pitch that will give us much more chance of getting games like Saturday’s played.
“That means we won’t have to squeeze so many in later in the campaign, which will help us in terms of fatigue and injuries which have become problems before.”
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