Paul Lawson wants to see his Formartine United side taking on the big teams in the Scottish Cup again.
Formartine have traditionally been a strong cup team, in regional and national cup competitions, and face familiar foes Turriff United in today’s preliminary round tie.
They reached the fourth round in 2017, where they were beaten 4-0 by then-Premiership side Partick Thistle, while they have also taken on Queen of the South in recent years.
Scalps have been picked up along the way, with Forfar Athletic and Annan two SPFL sides who have been seen off by Lawson’s men.
Today’s teams met in the first game of the Highland League season a fortnight ago, with Formartine running out 5-1 winners.
As well as the prize money generated by an extended run in Scotland’s national cup competition, Lawson hopes cup victories can generate excitement around Formartine.
He said: “In a normal year the prize money is great and, while we’re not going to win the cup, you have to aim for a little run. It brings excitement to the club and the financial aspect of progressing through the rounds is more important this year than others.
“The aim is to get to the rounds where the big teams come in and hopefully we can do that. It might be slightly different with no fans, but we want to make sure we give ourselves the best possible chance.”
The Formartine manager is also wary Turriff will have a point to prove, after the manner of their defeat a fortnight ago.
Lawson added: “The cup brings out a difference in teams. They will be going for it, from the aspect of avenging the defeat from the first game of the season.
“At the same time, after a performance and result like that, we have to be confident in ourselves and what we can do. We want to make sure we’re in the hat for the next round.”
‘All the pressure on Formartine’ – Turriff boss Hunter
Turriff head to North Lodge Park led by Kris Hunter, himself a former Formartine manager.
Hunter said: “It’s one of the toughest ties we could have asked for, especially away from home. We played them on the first day of the season and we know their qualities so it will be hard.
“But it’s a one-off game and all the pressure is on Formartine, so we’ve just got to play with freedom because the pressure is on them.”
Both sides were scuppered in their efforts to get a second league game played last weekend, with Turriff due to travel to Inverness to face Clach before torrential rain put paid to that.
Hunter remains optimistic about their chances and believes there were positives to take from the 5-1 defeat.
He added: “We do take positives from the last game because I think we had more possession, but individual errors cost us at important points.
“Formartine punish you if they make those mistakes and they showed their experience by punishing us for their mistakes.
“But the way we tried to play and tried to keep the ball was pleasing, so hopefully we’ve learned from that and we can cut out the mistakes.”