Scottish fifth-tier club Johnstone Burgh have been forced to schedule two cup matches on the same day, with kick-off times just 30 minutes apart, after efforts to rearrange the fixtures proved unsuccessful.\n<\/p>\n
As reported by BBC Sport on Wednesday, the club are due to face Tayport away in the Scottish Communities Cup third round at 14:30 GMT on Saturday, November 21, before travelling to face Dunipace in the Lowland League Cup first round at 15:00, approximately 65 miles away.\n<\/p>\n
The unusual fixture clash means Burgh will struggle to field their strongest available squad for both matches, with the club unable to find an alternative date despite exploring several options.\n<\/p>\n
In a statement on X, Johnstone Burgh said they had made extensive efforts to secure a suitable arrangement that would allow them to fulfil both fixtures outside the traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off window.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have explored every possible option to find a suitable solution that would allow us to play the tie outwith a Saturday afternoon as our schedule is already full,\u201d the club said.\n<\/p>\n
Burgh disclosed that their attempts included seeking changes to league fixtures and South Challenge Cup ties, proposing a midweek trip to Tayport, and offering Friday evening or Sunday afternoon kick-offs.<\/p>\n
The club also said they had proposed playing the Communities Cup tie immediately before or after their upcoming Lowland League Cup fixture.<\/p>\n
In a further attempt to resolve the situation, Burgh offered to forfeit their share of the gate money to compensate for any inconvenience caused by changing the fixture.\n<\/p>\n
However, none of the proposals produced an agreement.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite exhausting every option available to us, we have been unable to reach a solution that allows us to play outwith a Saturday afternoon,\u201d the statement added. <\/p>\n
The club expressed disappointment at being unable to compete in both matches with their strongest available squad but acknowledged the desire of other clubs to retain traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off times.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are extremely disappointed that, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to find a reasonable solution that would allow us to compete in both games with our strongest available squad,\u201d Burgh said.\n<\/p>\n
The club also thanked Tayport and the other teams involved in discussions for considering its proposals, while assuring supporters that every possible avenue had been explored.\n<\/p>\n
Johnstone Burgh currently sit eighth in the newly formed Lowland League West after gaining promotion from the West of Scotland League Premier Division.<\/p>\n
They won the Scottish Communities Cup two seasons ago, when the competition was known as the Scottish Junior Cup.\n<\/p>\n
Their opponents present contrasting league positions. Dunipace are second-bottom of the Lowland League East, while Tayport occupy sixth place in the Midlands Premier League, one tier below.\n<\/p>\n
All three clubs have already had fixtures postponed because of their participation in the second round of the Scottish Cup.\n<\/p>\n
Tayport were subsequently eliminated by Stranraer, while Dunipace suffered a heavy defeat against Largs Thistle on Saturday. Johnstone Burgh\u2019s home match against Highland League side Formartine United was also postponed and rescheduled for the following Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
With no agreement reached over the November 21 fixture clash, Burgh now face the challenge of managing two important cup commitments scheduled to begin just half an hour apart.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Scottish fifth-tier club Johnstone Burgh have been forced to schedule two cup matches on the same day, with kick-off times just 30 minutes apart, after efforts to rearrange the fixtures… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}