WORRIED Troon skipper Dean Keenan is warning his team-mates they face their biggest game in three seasons as Cumnock head to Portland Park.

And manager Gordon Burns is also urging a big effort as the team face a battle to beat the drop.

Troon are in third bottom spot in the Super Premier Division after suffering a fifth straight defeat on Saturday.

They have lost nine out of 14 games and are a point ahead of second bottom Largs and three clear of basement club Kilwinning Rangers.

They went down 3-1 away to Scottish Cup holders Beith Juniors with Colin Spence sent off just after the break, leaving the Seasiders facing an impossible task.

Keenan told Sportscene: "There is no doubt we are in a dog fight.. But things have just not been going our way, a couple of the goals came from deflections and that was unfortunate. I can't argue about the sending off which made it difficult for us."

The former Ayr United defender added: "The Cumnock match is the biggest one we have faced since we beat Beith 4-2 at Troon three seasons ago on our way to winning the title. We feel we have let ourselves down and owe the manager and the fans a big performance on Saturday. Cumnock have been going well but we must look to take the three points. We would like to string some results together but can't look any further forward than the next game. Hopefully the fans will turn out and get behind us."

Meanwhile Burns could still take some positives from the match and said: "We we up against the Scottish Cup holders who are a very good side. But I thought we played really well for the first 15 minutes and took the lead with a good goal. "We were looking to go into the second half ahead but they scored through a deflection which was unfortunate. Then we lost another goal at the worst possible time just after the break. Then Colin Spence was sent off. He was on a booking and a player of his experience shouldn't have made a challenge like that. After that it was a real uphill struggle although we didn't really battle to get back into the match."

The manager is demanding an improvement on Saturday and said: "We really must roll up our sleeves and battle. The aim is to make sure we stay up and we must look to get three points on Saturday. We are running out of games and only have eight to play."

Burns has a full squad to choose from apart from Dale Keenan, who has been out for the season with a cruciate ligament injury.