Johnstone Burgh boss Jamie McKim sees a bright future for striker Jay Keenan after the talented prospect impressed on his debut against top quality opposition.
Despite suffering a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at the hands of West of Scotland League top-tier side Auchinleck Talbot at Keanie Park last weekend, McKim felt there were plenty of positives to take from their clash with the Ayrshire giants.
The Burgh gaffer is determined to take his side up to the Premier Division in the coming years, and he believes Keenan may play a part in that after the 18-year-old was promoted up from the club’s development side.
McKim told Express Sport : “The scoreline shows that we never achieved what we wanted in terms of the result.
“They’ve got some top quality individuals and they punished us at key moments in the game.
“We’ve got work to do to get to that level, we’re not denying that for a second, but I felt the way we matched them for spells shows we’re not that far away from reaching that level.
“We want to be competing at Premier Division level in the coming years so it’s vital we challenge these top teams and learn from the experiences.
“Keenan has been in our development team and has really impressed us in recent weeks.
“He’s only just turned 18 and we were very impressed with him in the 70 minutes he played against Talbot.
“He caused them problems and drew some pretty heavy tackles, which is a very good sign.
“I don’t expect him to play every week this season but he certainly showed me he deserves to be in the mix.”
The games don’t get any easier for Burgh, with a trip to face Beith tonight before a home clash with Darvel this Saturday.
McKim insists he doesn’t want any easy games in pre-season as he looks to move his side up another gear ahead of their Conference campaign starting on Saturday, July 17.
He added: “If you want to move up a level then you need to get used to playing against big, established clubs.
“We’ll never go in for easy games that people say might be confidence-boosters.
“I’d much rather play tough opposition, you learn so much more from those games.
“These tough games will stand us in much better stead.”
