Scottish Club Johnstone Burgh Faces Fixture Chaos With Two Cup Ties on Same Day
The fifth-tier team must play two different matches just 30 minutes apart due to scheduling conflicts and unyielding opponents.
Scottish fifth-tier club Johnstone Burgh is in an unprecedented scheduling bind, set to play two cup ties on the same day, with only 30 minutes between kick-offs. The Renfrewshire outfit is scheduled to host Tayport in the third round of the Scottish Communities Cup on Saturday, November 21, at 2:30 p.m. Simultaneously, they are slated to play at Dunipace in the first round of the Lowland League Cup, located 65 miles away.
Despite extensive efforts to find a resolution, neither Tayport nor Dunipace, nor other clubs they approached regarding alternative league or cup dates, were willing to deviate from traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off times. This leaves Johnstone Burgh in the difficult position of needing to divide their squad and staff to compete in both fixtures.
"We have explored every possible option to find a suitable solution that would allow us to play the tie outwith a Saturday afternoon as our schedule is already full," Johnstone Burgh stated in a release on X. The club detailed attempts to rearrange league fixtures and South Challenge Cup ties, offered to play Tayport midweek, on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon, and even proposed playing the Communities Cup tie immediately before or after their Lowland League Cup fixture. They also offered to forfeit their share of gate receipts to mitigate any inconvenience caused by rescheduling.
"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 added.
Johnstone Burgh, who previously won the Scottish Communities Cup two seasons ago and were promoted to the Lowland League West last season, are already contending with a crowded fixture list. Their progression to the second round of the Scottish Cup, with a rescheduled home tie against Formartine United this Saturday, further compounds the issue.
This peculiar situation echoes a similar event earlier this month involving West Lothian side Armadale Thistle. Armadale played a league match at 2:30 p.m. and then returned for a Scottish Communities Cup fixture at 7:45 p.m. on the same day. However, in that instance, opponents were amenable to later kick-offs.
Scottish football has seen other unusual fixture clashes in the past. In 2020, Orkney FC faced a similar scenario with a 15-minute gap between games when they traveled for one match while a second XI played a home fixture. Perhaps the most famous instance occurred in 1916 during World War I, when Celtic played two matches in one day, winning both with late afternoon and evening kick-offs.
Johnstone Burgh expressed their disappointment, stating, "We want to reassure our supporters that every avenue has been explored and every effort has been made to find a workable solution."