Musselburgh end the Premier Division campaign in style with 7-0 rout

Musselburgh Athletic boss Liam Burns is targeting an East of Scotland Premier title triumph next season after closing the campaign clear in third place.

Liam Burns is aiming for the top next season

Burgh ended the season in style with a 7-0 thrashing of Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts at Olivebank, with striker Jordan Smith netting a ten-minute hat-trick in a rampant first half which saw Burns’ side leading 5-0 at the break.

Burns, who took over as manager last September when the club were sat tenth, says they will give it their upmost to follow in the footsteps of champions Linlithgow Rose.

“It was a perfect way to end the season with one of our best performances of the season. We had the player of the year awards on Saturday night, so it’s always good to win before a social event,” said Burns.

“We’ve done well the last few months, we’ve finished the season strong, so you are a bit disappointed to finish the season after such a result, but it’s also good to finish on a high. We will have roughly about a month off and then we’ll start pre-season in mid-June. It was something that Wayno [Wayne Sproule, assistant manager] said yesterday – we want to make sure we aren’t finishing our season at this time next year, we want to be in cup semi-finals and finals to go and play.

“Linlithgow definitely deserved it, they have been the best team in the league. It might put pressure on people or what not, but the aim is to win it next season, I’m not going to beat around the bush. We finished third and have done really well, but if we finish third next season I won’t be happy, with the players that we’ve got we should be pushing for it.

“We’ll be doing everything we can to try and win it. It will difficult because there is a lot of good sides and a lot of people will be trying to give it a real push to try and get promotion, but we’ll back ourselves against anybody.”

Elsewhere, new Penicuik Athletic boss David Hannah secured a point in a stalemate at home to Lowland League-bound Linlithgow in his first match in charge. Haddington Athletic finished fifth as they leapfrogged Jeanfield Swifts with a 2-1 win.