Jamie McKim believes Johnstone Burgh can achieve great things on the park – as long as they keep sticking to the game plan.
The Keanie Park side travelled to Ayrshire on Saturday knowing they needed a win to keep their faint hopes of sneaking into a WoSFL First Division promotion spot alive.
After toppling rivals for the top three Drumchapel United the weekend before, Burgh had to replicate that performance to take points from Kilbirnie Ladeside who are also chasing a place in the top flight.
After a poor start, excellent long-range efforts from Cammy Crooks and Jojo Gillespie secured another significant win that sees the club sitting six points off Gartcairn and Benburb who currently sit joint-second.
And Burgh bos McKim feels being more proactive in the final third and sticking to what they know is key to their late promotion push.
He said: “I’m delighted with the result. That’s really all that matters when you come to a place like this. It’s a tough place to come.
“The disappointing thing for me is the first-half performance. We started well but then tailed off and started doing things we are not good at, making things difficult for ourselves.
“It was one-each at half-time but we came out in the second half and started to defend properly as a team. We followed the game plan and we got our rewards.
“It was two good goals, both from outside the box. We’d spoken about it because in the last few games we hadn’t had enough attempts at goal.
“We caused a few more problems for Drumchapel but there’s been points recently when we’re just a bit too shy in the final third.
“That’s the moments of quality we need from the boys.
“If they can match that to their work rate, as they did against Kilbirnie, then we’ll win more games than we don’t.”
As well as crediting his forward players for cutting Kilbirnie open, McKim paid a special tribute to Burgh goalkeeper Lee Kilbride for keeping things tight at the back.
The shot-stopper pulled off an incredible late save to ensure his side returned home to Renfrewshire with all three points.
He said: “Lee’s save was absolutely outstanding. It saved us dropping two points at the end.
“But he didn’t have that much to do outside of that save, because our defence apart from that chance was very good.
“We were comfortable in the game and he was terrific when we needed him.”
Next up for Burgh is a tricky trip to Hannah Park to take on relegation-battling Shotts Bon Accord, with McKim adding: “That’s two big results and we need to build on that.
“We need to keep that momentum going and keep that positivity on the pitch.”
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