Johnstone Burgh to field two separate squads simultaneously to resolve impossible fixture clash

Johnstone Burgh are set to become the first club in Scottish football to play two competitive matches simultaneously, after the Renfrewshire side exhausted every available option to resolve an irreconcilable fixture clash on Saturday, 21 November.

The Lowland League West club face back-to-back cup commitments on the same afternoon: an away tie against Tayport in the Scottish Communities Cup and a trip to Dunipace in the Lowland League Cup. With no governing body, opponent, or scheduling authority willing or able to move either fixture, Burgh have accepted the inevitable and will split their squad in two.

In a club statement reported by the Daily Record, Johnstone outlined the lengths they had gone to in search of a solution. “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,” the club said. “This has included attempting to rearrange league fixtures and South Challenge Cup ties, travelling to Tayport midweek, playing Tayport on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon, and, most recently, offering to play the Communities Cup tie immediately before or after our upcoming Lowland League Cup fixture.”

The club also offered to forfeit their share of gate receipts to ease any inconvenience caused by rescheduling. None of it worked. “Regrettably, we now find ourselves in a position where our Communities Cup tie and Lowland League Cup tie must be played on the same day, at the same time, on Saturday 21st November,” the statement concluded.

Manager Stevie Farrell — a former St Mirren and Stenhousemuir defender — will be tasked with dividing his squad, sending one group on the long journey to the east coast to face Tayport while the other travels to Stirlingshire for the League Cup tie.

Johnstone Burgh were promoted to the Lowland League West last season, where they now compete in the fifth tier alongside clubs including Clydebank, Gretna, Albion Rovers, and a Celtic B side. The league’s recent expansion into two geographical divisions — the change that brought Burgh up in sixth place — is also what created the congested cup calendar now forcing this unprecedented situation.

The club count former Celtic and West Ham striker Frank McAvennie among their alumni, and currently sit in mid-table respectability. Whether either of their two squads can advance in their respective cups on 21 November remains to be seen, but the occasion itself has already secured Johnstone Burgh a place in Scottish football’s history books.