Friends will become rivals when Elgin City striker Dajon Golding and Aberdeen winger Shayden Morris come face to face in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup next month.
The two Englishman first met in London and have become good friends off the pitch since reuniting in Aberdeen last year following Golding’s move to Cove Rangers.
Golding moved to Borough Briggs on loan in January before making the move to City permanent in the summer after leaving Cove, but remains good friends with Dons attacker Morris.
Golding said: “Shayden and I grew up down south and we have gotten close over the last year.
“I knew him in London just through friends of friends really, and then once we were both in Aberdeen, we became good friends.
“He’s doing well after last season. It was a tough one for him coming back from injury and stuff, but I’m just glad that he’s getting his opportunity and he’s thriving.
“I go to see him as much as I can as I’ve got to try and support the London boys.”
The luck of the draw has ensured Golding and Morris will face off at Borough Briggs on January 18 in the fourth round of the cup – but the City forward insists he is keeping his focus on his side’s promotion challenge in League Two.
Golding said: “The cup tie will be exciting when it comes, but the most important thing in my mind is the league games we’ve got coming up.
“We need to stay focused on getting back to winning ways, getting results and getting them points on the board.”
‘We’re back to square one’
City’s hopes of getting back to winning ways on Saturday were dashed when they were suffered their first home defeat of the season in a 4-2 League Two loss to Stirling Albion.
The Black and Whites have dropped to third in the table, one point behind leaders East Fife and second-placed Peterhead.
However, Allan Hale’s side will move back up the table if they beat the Clyde at Borough Briggs in Tuesday’s rescheduled league fixture.
Golding believes his side have to start afresh after back-to-back losses.
He said: “It was a disappointing result on Saturday, but we will dust ourselves down and look to try again on Tuesday against Clyde.
“Obviously we’re missing a few of our centre-backs, but it’s no excuse. We’ve got a deep enough squad to get results.
“We’ve worked so hard in the last couple of months to really put ourselves in that position to really now branch out in front of everyone else.
“But the last two games, we haven’t taken points, so we’re back to square one again.
“But we’re only one point off the top and we are ready to go again.
“The gaffer doesn’t really have to say anything to kind of get us wound up and ready as we know what’s at stake.
“We know what we want to achieve as a team and we just we have to turn up, day in and day out, and work hard.
“If we can’t do that, we won’t have results, and it will be days like we had on Saturday.”
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