Johnstone Burgh will be in two places at once on Saturday 21 November.

The club has confirmed it will play two cup ties that afternoon at two different grounds, one in Fife and one in Stirlingshire, after running out of ways to rearrange its Scottish Communities Cup tie against Tayport.

  • Scottish Communities Cup: Tayport v Johnstone Burgh, in Fife, kick-off 2.30pm
  • Lowland League Cup: Dunipace v Johnstone Burgh, in Denny, kick-off 3pm

Burgh are expected to bring in players from their under-20 development squad to play alongside the first team, so they can put out two sides.

"Every avenue has been explored"

The club says it tried everything to avoid the clash. It looked at moving league and South Challenge Cup fixtures, travelling to Fife midweek, playing on a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon, and playing the Tayport tie just before or after the Dunipace game. It even offered to give up its share of the gate money to make up for any inconvenience.

"Despite exhausting every option available to us, we have been unable to reach a solution that allows us to play outwith a Saturday afternoon," the club said. "We want to reassure our supporters that every avenue has been explored and every effort has been made to find a workable solution. It certainly hasn't been for the lack of trying."

Burgh said they were disappointed not to be able to take their strongest squad into both games, but thanked Tayport and the other clubs involved for looking at the options.

Tayport's side of the story

Tayport dispute the suggestion that they were unwilling to find a date. The Fife club said it was ready to play on the original date of 17 October, which Burgh couldn't make, and offered 7 November too, which Burgh later turned down.

Tayport said it couldn't agree to a midweek game because of player, committee and volunteer availability. It was willing to play on 21 November with an afternoon kick-off, but was only offered an evening start. The club also said that moving away from a Saturday afternoon would hit the home side's finances, and blamed the "intransigency of other associations" for the situation.

So on 21 November, Burgh fans will have to pick which game to go to.

Image: Keanie Park, Johnstone. Photo: Jonny Keen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.