Johnstone Burgh chairman Brian Williams cried tears of joy after Junior Cup win
The Keanie Park supremo thought back to the days when the gates at the ground could have been padlocked for good.
Brian Williams admitted he cried tears of joy after Johnstone Burgh lifted the Junior Cup.
The Keanie Park chairman watched with pride from the main stand at Broadwood Stadium as the West of Scotland League Premier Division club's 57-year wait for the top prize in non-league football was brought to an end.
Ciaran Diver grabbed a late equaliser to send Sunday's final to penalties after Lowland League opponents Tranent had taken a first-half lead through Harry Girdwood.
Dean Brett missed Tranent's first kick and Burgh keeper Luke Scullion later denied Euan Bauld before former Rangers and Northern Ireland hero Kyle Lafferty stepped up to clinch the cup for Burgh.
It was hugely emotional – and historical – for Williams who witnessed Burgh lose their previous cup final appearance on spot-kicks to Whitburn Juniors in 2000.
'This is phenomenal,' he said. 'I never thought we'd ever get back to this. These guys here will be spoken about now for the duration of the club's existence. Infinity, basically.
'Twenty-five years ago, I stood on the terrace and had tears in my eyes – but sad tears because obviously we got beat that day. It's tears again but tears of joy.'
Almost 3,000 Burgh fans – in a crowd of 4,538 – made the pilgrimage to North Lanarkshire and it was party time when Lafferty confidently struck from 12 yards.
Williams knows memories which will last a lifetime have been created with the squad given a heroes' welcome in Johnstone's Houstoun Square on Sunday night.
He said: 'I think we've brought most of the town with us. We sold every single ticket we had and you can seen that. The amount of kids that came along as well was brilliant. That's our future.'
Having to show resilience and come behind has been the Burgh mantra for most of the second part of the season.
Despite starting the stronger side on Sunday, boss Murdo MacKinnon needed big characters to wipe out the deficit and Williams says a strong mentality has underlined their campaign.
He added: 'If you look at it across the season, we tend to win 2-1 and always seem to come from behind. But even when we go one-nil down, there is always a team in there that wants to come back, and they did.
'Don't get me wrong, big Lafferty – he's always been that impact player for us. He's always the one that's been put on to the park to dig it back out for us.
'And, again, he's done it. He had a hand in the equaliser before big Diver's got the last touch to it.
'He has been unbelievable this season. He's 37 years old and might not last 90 minutes but he give him that 20 minutes at the end he always pulls it out of the hat for us.'
Reflecting on how much the trophy meant to him, Williams said it shows how far the club have come in the last decade from when the gates were almost padlocked for good.
'I've said it umpteen times,' he explained. 'Eight years ago, I should have locked the doors and walked away as we were done. We held on. We did what we could and look at this. This is unbelievable. You know, it's a great day.'
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