Last updated 30/6/09

Fixtures announced

There have been three friendlies arranged, all away from home :

Kilsyth Rangers v Whitburn Tuesday 21st July 6.45 ko
Pollok v Whitburn  Sat 25th July
Armadale v Whitburn Sat 1st Aug  2pm ko

The sectional part of the League cup will be fought out and Whitburn are in with Bo'ness, Broxburn, Dalkeith, Edinburgh and Fauldhouse. Fixtures are now confirmed as follows:

Sat 8th Aug     Dalkeith v Whitburn  KO 2.30
Wed  12 Aug    Boness v Whitburn  KO 6.45
Sat  15th Aug   Whitburn v Fauldhouse KO 2.30
Wed 19th Aug  Whitburn v Broxburn     KO 6.45
Sat  22nd Aug   Edinburgh Utd v Whitburn KO 2.30

The first four league fixtures have been announced as follows, all starting at 2:30:

29 Aug   Bonnyrigg v Whitburn
5 Sept    Whitburn v Boness
12 Sept  Kelty v Whitburn
19 Sept  Whitburn v Newtongrange

The East of Scotland cup was not favourable to Whitburn as we are paired against Carnoustie away on the 26 September.

Player Sponsorship

Applications are invited for sponsors of our playing and coaching staff at a cost of £75 each. As per last season this is being organised by Ralph Murphy who can be contacted on ralphmurphy57@yahoo.co.uk or you may contact any of the committee to pledge support to this. This can be done individually or as a group banding together to spread the cost. One thing is certain, it provides a welcome boost to club funds at the start of the new season and the club is grateful to all who support any initiative that is set up. So far both McGurks, Colin Leiper, Andy Doig and Scott Gormley have been claimed.

Squad details

Whitburn will be starting the new season with the following group of players who have all re-signed : Stewart Walker, David McGurk, Alan Mooney, Colin Leiper, Jamie Mackay, Kenny Hannah, Eamon McNelis, Andrew Doig, David Murphy, John Murphy, Scott Murphy, Chris Dolan, Kevin Donnelly, Ian McSween and Colin Strickland. There has been senior interest in two of the aforementioned but at the moment they are Whitburn players. Also recontracted for a further year is the management team.

One of these has signed - a goalkeeper by the name of Ryan McGurk who is 6ft 4ins tall, 28 and played with Berwick Rangers. Ryan is joined by striker Scott Gormley who played alongside Andy Doig in the Whitehill Welfare team of recent seasons. Scott was a prolific goal scorer at that level and it is to be hoped that he makes the transition to top junior football as well as his former team mate. Welcome to both new recruits!

Finally, the club will have for sale this season replica strips and jackets as tastefully modelled(?!) below. Jackets will cost £18 and strips £20, both available in a variety of sizes and both very high quality. Please contact any of the committee if you would like to order either or both of these. You may also email the website and I will pass the details on.

Player of the year

On Friday 5 June the Social Club hosted a joint player of the year and a celebrating 75 years of Whitburn Juniors event. Over 100 ex players from all eras of the club were in attendance and Bob Malcolm and John Gilmour acted as roving reporters interviewing various significant ex players such as Jim Docherty, Stevie McCormick, Alan Irvine, Steve Prior and Paul Taylor amongst others. Everyone in the hall enjoyed the reminiscences and it was all played out to the accompaniment of the winning Cup final of 2000 when we defeated Johnstone Burgh on penalties - few people actually believing that we did actually win a penalty shootout! One of the highlights of the night was Jim Docherty (right) as auctioneer of a number of items. Docherty was the player that many feel kick started Whitburn's rise in the mid eighties to become one of the top teams in the country and he scored a magnificent 48 goals in 1986/7 (a feat that was matched by the aforementioned McCormick a couple of years later).

The player of the year, voted by committee and supporters, was Colin Leiper, who also won this accolade last season. The players' player of the year was won by Andrew Doig. The golden boot for top scorer is now confirmed to belong to Andrew Doig with 14 goals. Well done to both award winners.

Help Raise Funds for the Club

Do you ever shop online? easyfundraising is a shopping directory listing some of your favourite online stores including Amazon, Argos, Next, Debenhams, John Lewis, Toys R Us, HMV and over 600 others. Just use the links on the easyfundraising site whenever you shop online and, at no extra cost to you, the Football Club will receive a free donation of up to 15% from every purchase you make. It really is that simple!

It’s completely FREE to register and you won’t pay a penny more for your shopping when you use the easyfundraising site. In fact you can even SAVE MONEY as many retailers offer discounts, special offers and even 'e-vouchers' exclusive to easyfundraising.

If you shop online anyway then why not raise valuable extra funds for the Football Club by using this fantastic scheme. All you need to do is visit

http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/whitburnjuniorfc

and when you register, select Whitburn Junior Football Club as the organisation you wish to support.

Alex Lurinsky available for transfer

Whitburn's striker Alex Lurinsky has been made available for transfer. With Whitburn for 2 years, Alex was top scorer last season with 23 goals and had netted 9 times this season prior to Christmas. The club invites offers from interested teams. Please contact the website in the first instance and I will pass on.

Saturday 25 July, kick off tba Friendly Pollok FC v Whitburn	The winning numbers for the Whitburn Lottery drawn on Saturday 27 June were : 1 10 13 20 There were no winners so next week's prize is £300.

Thanks Banks and Thanks

The club wish to express their thanks to both the Ladies Section and the Supporters Club for very generous cash donations. Don't forget the latter's Quiz Night which takes place next Friday in the Social Club. 15 teams have declared an interest but there's room for plenty more at £20 per team. The bulk of the money raised will go to the club.

Whitburn Junior FC wish to express their gratitude to the Banks Community Fund which has granted the club funds which will help to improve the drainage at Central Park. Work on this much needed improvement to the playing surface will commence when the current season ends some time in late June. Thanks again!

The picture on the left shows the team and today's mascots with the board that the club will display alongside those of our other sponsors.

The club also received a thank you this week from another body - CLIC Sargent to whom the raffle at the Scottish Junior Cup round 4 draw was donated. See the acknowledgement here.

Club Merchandise

Now for sale at £5 are calendars which celebrate the fact that the club is 75 during the coming calendar year. The calendars show the current squad and are magnetic which would make them ideal as very useful (and large) fridge magnets.

There remain some metal lapel badges, though the bulk of these have sold out. Cost for these is £3.

Finally at £15 are club brollies in the claret and amber colours of the team. These are very high quality umbrellas and would le everyone in the ground know straight away who you support!

Contact any of the committee if you are interested in supporting the club by purchasing any of the above goodies.

Home match mascots are here.                                            

Discussion forum for Whitburn

A forum for Whitburn has been set up and all fans are encouraged to visit, sign on and make this a viable, stimulating and interesting group. Click the link below to visit and sign up....

Whitburn juniors unofficial message board

Hosted by Runboard.com

Whitburn's main sponsors

Whitburn main sponsors who are Karma Indian Cuisine, West Main Street - thanks are due to Dep, Robert and Jaggy, please support our local excellent curry house!

The 2008/9 squad

The Whitburn squad of 2008/9 in their home strips provided by sponsors Karma Indian Cuisine. Picture by Bert Pearson.

Back row : Billy Clark, Stewart Kenny, John Murphy, Andy Roberts, Eamon McNelis, Andrew Doig, Stewart Walker, Colin Leiper, Jamie Mackay, David McGurk, Alan Mooney, Laura Gillogley

Front row : Chris Dolan, Alex Lurinsky, Kevin Donnelly, Kenny Hannah, Derek Strickland, Denny McComiskey, Colin Strickland, Scott Murphy, David Murphy

The committee.