Johnstone Burgh Match Preview – Troon Football Club

The big matches just keep coming, and it’s another away match and it’s a midweek trip under the new lights at Keanie Park for our 26th WOSFL Premier Division match of the season.

⚽️ Johnstone Burgh versus Troon F.C. ⚽️
Wednesday 22nd April 2026
WOSFL Premier Division
Keanie Park, Johnstone
Kick-off 7.30pm

After an impeccable January, February was almost a disappointment by comparison but March was very much back with a bang. Five wins and a draw was a superb return and not only saw us back at the top of the table but into a WOSFL Cup Final in May as well!

Focus has re-shifted entirely to the league now for the next month and the challenges get tougher almost by each passing week, with a massive month in April. And it’s a case of “so far, so good” with wins against both Hurlford and Pollok. Not only that, our season’s target of a top 8 finish & promotion was confirmed with 6 games to go last weekend, which is magnificent news! However, there is plenty of football still to play & now is no time for complacency.

Johnstone Burgh supporters have been taken on one hell of a ride since Jack Henderson & Scott Graham bought the club a few years ago. Last season was their first year back in the Premier Division since their relegation from the SJFA West Region Premiership at the end of 2005-06, and they finished a more than respectable position of 3rd behind Champions Clydebank and Auchinleck Talbot. They lifted the Scottish Junior Cup on that amazing day in June & they took part in the senior Scottish Cup for the first time this season, eventually bowing out in the second round proper against Camelon. But their focus now will be on the league, that is the next obvious target for their squad of stars and they will feel under pressure to catch-up & compete for the title.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Wednesday’s match…

Very positive to see the queue for Darrell’s treatment table decreasing over the last few weeks, which could be vital ahead of a crucial run of games for the club.

Midfielder Callan Veitch came off at half-time on Saturday with a knock, but he is expected to make a recovery in time for Wednesday night, while defender Jack Barr returned to the bench last Saturday against Pollok following his injury. Scott McLean has joined Maybole on loan to get himself back to full fitness for next season.

Most serious injury concern just now appears to be defender Jack Sherrie, who was helped from the pitch at Kilwinning in January with a worrying looking knee injury. He visited a consultant in March to determine the extent of the damage, but the results are yet to come back.

Another mouth watering fixture to look forward to this week, and another massive challenge for us to look to overcome. We all know how good a squad there is at Keanie Park, and how the crowd can get right behind the players but what we don’t know is what impact the departure of their Manager Murdo MacKinnon will have. I don’t like seeing any Manager losing their job, Murdie has been around the game a long time & they will always have that special day in June to remember, but have to focus on adapting to whatever is thrown at us on Wednesday night & overcoming that.

Every single game is like a Cup Final for us now; we can see other teams are treating the visit of the league leaders as such, so we need to be of that mentality in every minute of every match we play. I said last week; we need to make sure we’re organised & prepared to match their work-rate and commitment levels, as drop even 1% and you pay the price. I kind of felt that was the story of Saturday, we just weren’t quite at the levels that we have shown so many times this season and that was enough for Largs to capitalise. We need to learn from that.

We can see all around us all of the chaos going on regarding the promotion chase, is it 8 or 9 going up, question marks over licensing; and it makes me even prouder that our club got it’s house in order really early this season and what has already been achieved. Obviously, there’s never any guarantees with plans like those and I’m sure other clubs were of a similar mindset last summer, but knowing all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes as well as both on and off the pitch, we are allowed to take stock & take satisfaction of what we’ve done so far. That should spur us on in the remaining six matches of the season – go and finish the job.

‘Mon the Seasiders!

Jimmy Kirkwood (Manager)

Full Name	Johnstone Burgh Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Burgh
Founded	1956
Ground	Keanie Park, Johnstone
Capacity	3,000
Club President	Brian Williams
Caretaker Manager	Graeme Ramage
Captain	Del Esplin
2024-25	WOSFL Premier Division, 3rd from 16

⚽️️ BLAIR ROSSITER ⚽️

The Rangers youth academy graduate is one of the most important creative influences in the Burgh side, whom he joined after winning the Premier Division title with Beith in 2022-23.

After beginning his career at Rangers, Blair had a season at East Kilbride in the Lowland League before a move down south to join big spending South Shields, where he enjoyed a 3 year spell at Mariners Park.

⚽️️ MATTY GRANT ⚽️

Matty has been like a new signing of late for the Burgh, returning to fitness after missing most of the season due to injury.

A summer signing from Stranraer, the 24 year old first came to prominence after standing out for Pollok down the right flank after joining them following a short spell at Bellshill in 2021.

Began his career in Airdrie’s Youth Academy before joining St. Mirren, Matty is a quick & tenacious full-back who is equally at home in midfield. One to watch for sure.

Johnstone Burgh

WON	LOST	WON	LOST	DREW
2-0	2-3	1-3	3-0	0-0
Shotts (H)	Renfrew (H)	Rutherglen (A)	Cumnock (A)	Glenafton (H)
Sat 18th April	Wed 15th April	Sat 11th April	Weds 8th April	Sat 4th April
WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier

Troon F.C.

DREW	WON	WON	WON	WON
1-1	1-0	4-1	1-6	2-1
Largs (A)	Pollok (H)	Hurlford (H)	Rutherglen (A)	Shotts (H)
Sat 18th April	Sat 11th April	Weds 1st April	Sat 28th March	Wed 25th March
WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier	WOSFL Premier

If you can’t make it along to the game , you can keep up to date with all the latest info via the club’s social media channels:

Live updates from the official Troon F.C. Twitter feed (nope, still not calling it X yet)

Team news pre-match
Goal alerts
News flashes
Real time alerts

Make sure you follow our NEW feed!

Match news via the official Troon F.C. Facebook page

Team news pre-match
Half-time score & update
Full time results

All news on the club FIRST via the official Troon F.C. WhatsApp Supporter’s Group chat

Vote for your Man of the Match
Info on functions & events
Book your seat on away buses
Discuss the match with fellow Troon fans!

It was maximum points for the eventual Scottish Junior Cup Champions last season, with a confident victory at Keanie Park in August followed by a far tighter contest down by the Seaside in February.

AWAY MATCH

Saturday 10th August 2024

Match Centre

JOHNSTONE BURGH	LOST	Keanie Park
TROON FOOTBALL CLUB	3-0	WOSFL Premier

The first encounter of 2024-25 was a comfortable win for the home side, as the Burgh ran out 3-0 winners in the summer sunshine at Keanie Park.

Troon started the match well and had opportunities to open the scoring in the first half which were spurned, but a combination of good goalkeeping from Scullion & profligacy from Troon saw the opening 45 end up somehow goalless.

The second half saw a different bite from the home side, and after Danny O’Neill gave them a 52nd minute lead you could see them grow into the game. Troon failed to click into top gear & couldn’t get the goal that would level the contest, before Aaron Mason eventually secured the match with a 78th minute strike before Max Kerr rounded off the scoring with just four minutes to go.

HOME MATCH

Saturday 15th February 2025

Match Centre

TROON FOOTBALL CLUB	LOST	Portland Park
JOHNSTONE BURGH	1-2	WOSFL Premier

The return match in February was to be another fantastic encounter, and saw a confident Troon side determined to make up for the frustration of August’s match.

The match followed a similar pattern initially to the earlier match, with Troon on the front foot & not quite capitalising with the first half ending goalless. Burgh made changes at the interval to try to get back into the match and introduced new signing Allan MacKenzie, but it was Troon who eventually broke the deadlock as Dario Viviani scored in the 64th minute. It was an instant reaction from the Burgh as MacKenzie netted a debut goal from a trademark header just two minutes later, before Max Kerr won the contest in the 74th minute from a MacKenzie assist.es later. In the second half, Talbot stretched their legs against a tired side and once Luke Gillies scored a deserved second goal there was only going to be one winner.

(before this week’s matches)

	REFEREE:
	Jamie Wilkie
Assistant Referee 1:		Assistant Referee 2:
Victoria Kane		Matthew McAlpine

Referee Observer:

Not yet appointed

For travelling supporters, follow the Google Map below for directions to Keanie Park.

N.B. Take care when parking near Keanie Park on matchdays, as traffic wardens are likely to be out in force. Please be respectful to neighbours when parking cars, do not move cones or park over drives.

🚌 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗕𝗨𝗦 🚌

There is no supporter’s bus planned for this week.

🚍 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗬 𝗕𝗨𝗦 🚏

To plan your journey from Troon to Johnstone, visit the “Journey Planner” section of Stagecoach’s website.

🔗 STAGECOACH.com

🚝 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗬 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗡 🚉

For train times from Troon to Johnstone, or to book tickets, visit Scotrail’s website.

🔗 SCOTRAIL.co.uk

Tickets are available at the cash turnstiles at Keanie Park:

Adult:	£9
Concession:	£6

You can find out all about the match itself by visiting the match centre both before and after the game, with the team line-ups, scorers & bookings on the specific match page for the fixture.

To visit the match centre, CLICK HERE.