HELENSBURGH boss John Cashmore thinks this Saturday’s tie at home to Kilmarnock has taken on the significance of a cup final following his side’s second defeat in as many weeks.

The Burgh were on the wrong end of a 49-7 defeat at Glasgow Academical on Saturday, which followed on from a home defeat to Allan Glens and Cashmore thinks a win would be massive for the team.

He said: “This is a mini cup final, we need to get confidence back in the group, if we could get four or five points that would push us up towards the top end of the table.” Cashmore conceded that his team could’ve performed better but were hamstrung by injuries and faced a very good team on the day.

He said: “We had a weak team, the scrum was under pressure. Cairns and Rogers were struggling with injuries so that was a problem.

“We could’ve protected our own ball better, we gave it away time after time. To be honest we could’ve done everything better but I can understand how difficult it was for the boys mentally. To go away to a Glasgow Accies team who will be up near the top two come the end of the season, with the squad we had, so I don’t want to be too hard on them.” Helensburgh should be in better shape for the visit of Kilmarnock as Cashmore expects some of his key men to be back.

He said: “We have lost Alberto Figueroa who has gone back to Spain but hopefully Phil Rogers, Jonny Drake and Johnny Moffat will be back.”