Jamie McKim was left feeling gutted for his players after they missed out on the chance to claim a massive WoSFL Cup scalp because of a “nightmare” offside call.
Johnstone Burgh arrived at Beechwood Park as massive underdogs for their second-round clash with top-flight side Auchinleck Talbot but more than held their own throughout the hard-fought tie.
After missing chances of their own, the Renfrewshire side were ultimately beaten by Mark Shankland’s first-half close-range finish.
But McKim is adamant the goal shouldn’t have stood, with another Talbot player appearing to block Burgh goalkeeper Glen Cameron’s view while standing in an offside position.
McKim told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “It was a tough loss to take. I thought we put in a dominant performance, while lacking a bit of cutting edge up front to put the ball in the back of the net.
“I’m really proud of the boys. We had them hanging on at the end and I told the players afterwards there won’t be many teams that go there and manage to do that.
“The officials had a hard time of it after the game and I do believe Talbot should have had a stonewall penalty in the second half. It should have been given. But for me their goal was offside.
“The boy who scored was onside, but they have another player blatantly blocking my goalkeeper’s view.
“I’ve seen it from multiple angles and for me it’s clear as day.
“It’s a nightmare decision when you’ve played so well and deserve something from the game. We also had a well-worked move and a great ball played into the box and the linesman wrongly called it offside.
“It was frustrating to watch and I’m sure it was frustrating for the players to take as well.”
Despite leaving Ayrshire empty-handed, McKim believes his side can take plenty of positives from the cup clash when they return to First Division action this weekend.
Facing promotion rivals Benburb at Keanie Park, the Burgh boss feels his team can beat anyone if they produce the same kind of performance week in, week out.
McKim said: “With no disrespect to any other team in our league, none are at the same level as Talbot.
“If we can play with that kind of intensity and desire, we’ll be a threat to everyone in this division.
“The challenge now is for us to replicate that performance every week, not just in a big cup game.
“If we play like we did at Beechwood every week we could win every game between now and the end of the season.
“Benburb are up to third in the league after beating Bonnyton. They’ll be tough, but this is a massive chance for us to show we deserve to be in the mix for promotion this season.”
McKim also paid tribute to new centre-back Eachainn Miller who was thrown in at the deep end after only signing for Burgh last week.
He added: “Miller only signed on Friday, but he’d trained with us on the Thursday and we knew he was fit and ready to go on the Saturday.
“He couldn’t have asked for a much tougher debut, but he was brilliant. Hopefully he can keep performing for us and be an important player going forward.”
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