Aberdeen Warriors, the city’s rugby league team, will find out today who they will face in their tournament debut in the 2014 Challenge Cup.
The Warriors, who play their home matches at Hazlehead, will be the most northerly of the 44 teams in the draw.
Every team in the draw will be dreaming of making it to Wembley Stadium for the final of rugby league’s oldest and most prestigious competition on August 23.
However, Warriors head coach Craig Parslow will be delighted if his side manages to get past the first round.
He said: “All we want from the draw is a home game.
“We will be the underdogs whoever we face and the aim is simply to get to the second round.
“That would be a great achievement.
“It would be even better if we managed to make it to the third round as then you would be in with a chance of facing one of the English professional teams.
“We are looking forward to the draw and finding out who we will face next month.”
The first two rounds of the competition will be played on February 1 and 22.
The remaining winning teams will then face semi-professional opposition in the third round on the weekend of March 15 and 16 before the Super League clubs – including holders Wigan Warriors – enter the fray in the fourth round on April 5 and 6.
Aberdeen Warriors qualified for the Challenge Cup by being crowned Scottish champions last year with a 30-28 victory against Easterhouse Panthers in Falkirk in August.
An injury-time try from Alasdair O’Connor gave the Aberdeen side a maiden title and head coach Parslow is eager to see the club build on that success. Parslow added: “Rugby league is getting really popular up here.
“We are the biggest club in Scotland. We have two senior teams and players who travel from as far afield as Forfar and Huntly to play for us.
“We also have a number of youth teams from under-13s to under-17s levels.
“We also have links with Aberdeen Grammar School and Westhill Academy to help promote the game and ever since the Saltires Schools Cup was established in 2011 it has always been won by an Aberdeen team, which is very pleasing.”