WHAT had promised to be a defining Saturday afternoon for Beith Juniors ended on a somewhat sombre note when match referee Richard Murray declared their Bellsdale Park pitch unplayable for the eagerly awaited Super Premier Division clash with Kilwinning Rangers.

The last-minute postponement turned out to be a particularly costly one for the Ayrshire club (£500 was the sum being bandied about) but of even greater concern is the prospect that it may yet prove a damaging blow to the league title aspirations of Johnny Millar’s men going into the second half of the season.

To be denied the chance to eat into a backlog of league fixtures caused by their sensational winning run in this season’s William Hill Scottish Cup – they have played only seven matches this season – leaves the Mighty down in the bottom half of the table and with a considerable points deficit to make up on their main title rivals.

And their task appears even greater considering Beith’s continued participation in the Scottish Junior Cup and New Coin Holdings West of Scotland Cup competitions.

The Bellsdale Park outfit find the situation every bit as frustrating and experienced defender Kevin MacDonald summed up their feelings, saying: "A victory against Kilwinning would have moved us up to joint-fifth spot so every player was desperate for Saturday’s game to go ahead.

“It’s all very well having games in hand but at some stage you have to turn them into points and we had the added incentive of attempting to pay the Buffs back for turning us over 3-1 at their place just a fortnight ago.

“All due credit to them for playing well on the day.However, we made it very easy for them with arguably our worst performance in over a year and it’s no exaggeration to say it was a case of us not turning up on the day.

“It’s so unlike our team to lose cheap goals but for whatever reason we just never came out of the traps and were 3-1 down by the 20th minute, left with what proved to be too much of a mountain to climb.

“We let a lot of supporters down at Abbey Park so the guys were champing at the bit to make amends until the referee took the opportunity away from us.”

The 33-year-old defensive enforcer said he had been looking forward to Queen's Park loan signing Joe Bradley making his second Mighty debut on Saturday.

MacDonald said: “Joe would never have dropped into the Juniors to play for any other club and he has looked the part training with us, so it’s exciting to think what he will bring to the team.

“Getting in someone of his skill and versatility is going to be a great help when the games start to pile up and we’ve also strengthened our playing squad by snapping up another former player in Paul McMenamin, whose second spell at the club is timely given that Nicky Docherty is still out of action while awaiting the results from a knee scan.

“Nicky is an unsung hero whose aerial ability in both penalty boxes is phenomenal and hopefully he’ll be back soon however Paul might just be the ideal stand-in."

Beith are on the road for a friendly joust with Clydebank today ahead of returning to competitive action with games against Super Premier strugglers Troon and Largs Thistle in the New Year. However, coming up fast on the horizon is a tasty Scottish Junior Cup fourth round confrontation with Auchinleck Talbot.

MacDonald admitted: “Everyone wants to play in that one and will be pulling out all the stops to catch the manager’s eye.

“Nobody but nobody’s place is guaranteed other than maybe Big Shay [goalkeeper Stephen Grindley]and already we have Kenny McLean back in form and displacing Ross McPherson as the preferred partner for Darren Christie up front though I fancy Ross will be bursting for a chance to impress over the coming weeks.

“And it’s no bad thing that ;we are all in the same boat.”