Darvel chairman John Gall is determined their own Recreation Park will play host to top-flight Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup.
The Premiership Dons will enter this year’s national trophy away to the sixth-tier West of Scotland Premier League champions in the fourth round.
Aberdeen fans are famous for travelling in big numbers – and a delighted Gall has told the Press and Journal he wants the dream clash to take place in Darvel, rather than moving it to a bigger ground nearby, like Rugby Park.
Gall says Recreation Park will host tie – and he’ll give Dons ‘fair allocation’
Giving an indication of how big a ticket allocation the Red Army might receive for the tie on January 21 or 22, Gall said: “I’m determined to keep the game at Darvel.
“It’s the romance of the cup and that’s what it’s all about for me.
“We could make double the amount of money if we moved it to Kilmarnock, but it’s not about the money, it’s about bringing Aberdeen to Darvel, to our pitch, which will be a leveller for us. It’s one of the best surfaces in Scottish football, but it’s our park.
“The crowd is right on top of the players and everything like that, and I think it’ll be a wonderful occasion, I really do.
“During Covid, they gave us (a capacity of) 2,200, but I’ve since heard it’ll be more than that now – but we never thought we would need it this season!
“I’m not sure how many tickets Aberdeen will get. It might be as little as 500, I don’t know – because we want our fans there, but I’ve still got to give them a fair allocation.”
Gall revealed the coming days will be hectic as Darvel clarify how many fans will be allowed into Recreation Park for the glamour tie with the Dons – as well as also laying the groundwork to make Scottish Cup day a real occasion for the Ayrshire town of fewer than 5,000 people.
The chairman – who agrees with the consensus view the Darvel-Aberdeen tie also looks like a nailed-on pick for live television broadcast – added: “There’s a couple of pubs in town, and we’d like to think we might put something on for them (the Dons fans) in the town hall.
“We’ve got a Zoom meeting to discuss a lot of things, but it’s all down to meeting the police and council on Monday at the park to clarify the capacity of the ground.”
Darvel chief: ‘We were all singing the Northern Lights of Aberdeen this morning’
Darvel joined the West of Scotland League, moving to senior, semi-professional status with the rest of the West Region Junior clubs, when the leagues below the SPFL were reconstructed in the wake of the first Covid lockdown and ahead of the 2020/21 season.
They won the WOS Premier League last term, before narrowly missing promotion to the Lowland League via the play-offs – and are league frontrunners again this term.
Gall, however, insists Darvel’s biggest game remains the Scottish Junior Cup final in 1975/76 (which they lost 3-0 to Bo’ness)… Well, until now.
The managing director of the Killie Pie-making Browning’s the Bakers said: “We got to the Scottish Junior Cup final in 1976, which was the biggest game ever for the club, but people are saying now this is far bigger, because it’s actually happening in Darvel.
“We were all singing the Northern Lights of Aberdeen this morning looking forward to it!”
Gall revealed, before the draw for the Scottish Cup fourth round was made, he was hoping for a different type of tie.
But, having landed seven-time winners Aberdeen, he now wouldn’t have it any other way.
Gall said: “We thought we could’ve had an easier tie at home or a money-spinner away from home, but now Aberdeen’s come along, and we’re just saying: ‘Naw, this is unbelievable and a great draw for us’.
“We just want it to be live on telly, and hope the weather’s not too bad and it’s postponed or anything.
“The whole town will be decked in blue and white, there’s no doubt about that.
“Some of the old boys at the club are going about shaking their heads right now, they can’t believe this is happening. It’s Roy of the Rovers stuff!”
Darvel have SPFL experience, and think they can give Dons a game
Darvel’s 5-2 third round win over League One Montrose at Links Park on Saturday was “testament” to their ability, chairman Gall thinks.
He feels the side, who overcame a 23-point deficit at one point last term to win their league – due to having eight games in hand – have taken it up a notch again this season, where they are sitting at the WOS Premier League summit, despite having two games to catch up on.
Gall also believes Darvel’s mix of SPFL experience and the nature of the Scottish Cup gives them a puncher’s chance of overcoming Jim Goodwin’s Pittodrie giants.
He said: “(We’ve got) Ian McShane, ex-Falkirk (and League Cup winner with Ross County), and Darryll Meggatt (ex-Alloa and Ayr) – there’s a host of players there with league experience who’ve decided to come down to Darvel and they’re loving everything that’s happening around here, like winning the league and stuff like that.
“We’re playing at Darvel. We play there every second week.
“Can we beat them? There’s bigger shocks than that in Scottish football before.
“We like to think we could give them a game.
“There’s no replay, it’s played to a finish on the day – extra-time and penalty kicks – so you never know.
“We’ll just go into it with high hopes and hope we can put on a show for ourselves.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult, we all know that, but it’s football.”
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