Johnstone Burgh chairman hopes 57-year wait for Junior Cup glory could be ended
Brian Williams insists Johnstone Burgh's class of 2024-25 have the chance to be spoken about in 50 years.
The West of Scotland League Premier Division side face Tranent of the Lowland League in the final of the Junior Cup on Sunday.
Burgh last reached the final in 2000 when they lost to East of Scotland League outfit Whitburn Juniors on penalties and their last success in the competition was way back in 1968.
However, Williams admits that — whatever the outcome for Murdo MacKinnon and his team — he knows it will be a day out everyone will enjoy.
'I'm looking forward to it and I'm quite excited about it,' the Keanie Park chairman told the Paisley Daily Express. 'It is 25 years since we were last at this stage and I was there.
'It was a fantastic day out but a disappointing result but it was a spectacle We hope Sunday is the same and shows how far the club has come over the years.'
The competition is one which is of great importance to many Burgh supporters of a certain generation as it is associated with the club's most successful period in the 1950s and 60s.
The club won Junior football's top prize — the Junior Cup — twice with Jimmy Blackburn and Peter Donald in charge of those historical moments. In the modern era, however, the club have endured tough times and dropped down the divisions with real fears for the future.
But thanks to dedicated individuals — with Williams being one of them after his association with the club started in the wake of the 2000 final — the club continued to operate until new investors arrived in 2023.
'It's a tournament that has a lot of history in the club,' Williams says of the Junior Cup, 'especially with the team from the 50s and 60s during that successful period.
'And 25 years ago when I came here, I was fortunate a lot of the old guard were still here. From what we've done since the 60s, we've been a sleeping giant for 20 or 30 years.
'I'll admit that basically eight or nine years ago, we probably should have gone to the wall. But myself and a couple of others decided we'll keep going and we'll fight on.
'But I'd say at this club at the moment, everything's looking superb —we have, plans we have for the future, the amount of kids we have here — over 350 kids playing for every single age group — the difference from 10 years is completely night and day.'
And if Burgh were to go and lift the cup on Sunday, Williams admits a few tears would be shed. He added: 'I'd probably start crying!
'If we do win it, just the fact that highlighting the club, being in that public eye, the crowds are growing and people now realise that there's a good club here. It's a good atmosphere, it's a family club.
'Hopefully the boys will do that this Sunday and, if they win, they'll be talked about in 50 years.'
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