Turriff United manager Kris Hunter has paid tribute to committee member Web Duncan ahead of their Scottish Cup tie against Formartine United.
The Haughs outfit face Formartine at North Lodge Park tonight with a first round tie against Haddington Athletic on offer for the winner.
However, Hunter says football has been put in perspective after the death of Mr Duncan, aged 62, following a road accident on Friday.
Turriff boss Hunter said: “It was devastating news and everyone’s thoughts are with Web’s family at this time.
“Nothing can take away from the impact Web had on the club. When I first joined Turriff when they came into the Highland League (2009) Web was one of the guys who had just come onto the committee.
“We started redeveloping the ground and Web was instrumental in that along with guys like Ellis Duguid and Ian Massie and the other people at the club, there was great community spirit.
“Web has always been busy doing things in the background to help the club for the last 10 years and he’ll be sorely missed.
“He was great company on the bus going to away games, he was a gentleman, if you asked him anything it would get done and he loved the club.
“Web will be a massive miss, we’re all hurting but we’ve got to play this game and the club has to try to carry on without him.
“But it’s very sad that we’ve lost Web who was part of the Turriff United family and all our thoughts are with his family.
“It puts everything in perspective when you get a loss like this.”
Looking ahead to this evening’s game Hunter hopes Turriff can cut out the individual mistakes from their first Highland League game of the season – a 1-5 defeat to Formartine on November 28.
He added: “The pressure is on Formartine because they are the favourites and everybody thinks they will go through.
“But we need to cut out the mistakes and see how it goes, I think our players showed in the first game they had belief and confidence.
“I felt we had the majority of possession but let ourselves down with individual mistakes.”
Formartine manager Paul Lawson is hoping for a similar performance to that victory on the opening day of the Highland League campaign.
He knows the impact a good cup run could have on the Pitmedden club, but is taking nothing for granted.
Lawson said: “It will be a tough game, we played really well in the last game and scored some really good goals.
“It was our first league game and the boys were hungry to start well, but this is a different scenario with it being in the cup and knowing who is lying in wait.
“We know what we need to do and if we can produce a similar performance to the last game we should get through to the next round, but we can’t take anything for granted.
“We’ve got a good recent record in the Scottish Cup and the financial impact of a good Scottish Cup run is great and it’s probably even more important this year.
“Every club will be looking at the financial rewards which could be there and it means this is a big game for us.
“But we need to make sure we’re fully focused and bring our top game.”
Turriff are without James Chalmers, while Formartine are missing Scott Lisle.