Jamie McKim is confident his Burgh boys will bounce straight back after suffering a rare league loss at Keanie Park.
Johnstone Burgh were handed their first domestic defeat in 17 games by Kilbirnie Ladeside, who were competing in the WoSFL Premier Division last season.
The Renfrewshire side overcame an early setback when the visitors opened the scoring after capitalising on a goalkeeping error, with Kieran Brophy curling the hosts level just before the break.
Kilbirnie went back ahead less than a minute after half-time, before going on to put some gloss on the scoreline with a back post header and a penalty.
McKim insists Burgh learned more from Saturday’s defeat than they did in some of their biggest wins last season, including how to cope with the pressure of a larger, more intimidating away support.
McKim said: “We let ourselves down a wee bit against Kilbirnie.
“The first goal, our keeper makes an individual error that gave them a huge lift.
“I’m not going to hang him out to dry because he’s been excellent since he came in for us and I’m sure he’ll be fantastic for us in the future.
“We then concede 45 seconds into the second half, a terrible time to go behind.
“They’ve then picked us off twice as we’ve tried to find an equaliser.
“Full credit to Kilbirnie, they deserved the win and they worked incredibly hard.
“But it’s our first loss in the league in 17 games and I can’t remember the last time we conceded that many goals in one game.
“It was a tough atmosphere. They brought a lot of fans, some lovely people, and it was maybe a wee bit intimidating for some of our younger players.
“We didn’t want the ball enough at times, but we’ll definitely learn from that experience, both me as a manager and the players.
“We learned more on Saturday than we did in the games we won 8-0 last season.
“The standard has been raised at the club coming into the First Division and it’s up to us to improve as much as we can.
“There’s added pressure and motivation and I’m sure that will be a one-off result and performance. We won’t let that happen again.”
The opponents don’t get any easier for Burgh, with a trip to title favourites Benburb up next for the Keanie Park club.
Far from shying away from the task, McKim is relishing the opportunity to get back to winning ways against a strong outfit.
McKim said: “This is the third team in three games we’re facing that were in the Premier Division just a couple of months ago.
“I can’t wait for it.
“We want to be at this level and we’re never going to hide from these challenges.
“It’s all about how we react to that defeat at the weekend.
“There’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves because we’ll get run over in this league if we stand still.
“I know we’re better than we showed against Kilbirnie and I’m confident we’ll show that against Benburb.”
