Buckie Thistle veteran Lewis MacKinnon and Brora Rangers stalwart Ally MacDonald are determined to savour GPH Builders Merchants Highland League Cup success.
The Jags meet the Cattachs in Saturday’s showpiece final at Station Park, Nairn.
MacKinnon – Buckie’s player-assistant manager – is in contention to start having featured regularly in recent weeks.
The 37-year-old defender admits that has come as a surprise and accepts this may be his last final as a player.
MacKinnon, who played in the last Thistle side to win the Highland League Cup in 2012, said: “I haven’t played so much this season. I was fit at the start of the season and then got injured.
“Sam Morrison and Jack Murray have been brilliant all season but then an injury to Sam and then full-backs meant I came back in and I’ve done OK.
“I’ve put myself in the frame to start the final which a month or two ago I wouldn’t have expected to be anywhere near.
“This could be my last cup final as a player, my body after games is telling me it might be time to stop.
“But as long as I’m still contributing on the park then I’ll put up with the pain.
“Winning this time probably would mean more to me because I’m part of the coaching staff and I think over the last couple of years we’ve put together a really good young squad.
“They’ve taken on board the way we want to play and we’ve done a lot of work on it.
“And for me the satisfaction of being involved in both the playing and coaching side would top previous cup wins.”
MacDonald knows time is running out
At 33 Brora’s MacDonald appreciates he won’t have many more opportunities to win silverware and is determined to make the most of this chance.
The left-back added: “I don’t know how many more cup finals I’ll get to play in or when my career will come to a close.
“So I’ve got to look forward to these moments and enjoy them because I’ll be 34 at the start of next season and they’re won’t be many left.
“We’ve only won the League Cup won so I’ll be doing everything I can to make this memorable for Brora and for myself.
“When you look back on careers you look back on what you achieved and for me it’s about winning as much as we can.
“That’s how I’ll look back on my career when I call it day, I pride myself on winning things and I think it’s important the younger players appreciate that as well.”
Involvement in previous success
MacDonald played when Brora won this competition for the only time in their history in 2016 on penalties against Nairn County.
He said: “It’s really tough to win this cup and that’s been shown over the years.
“That was a good memory winning against Nairn after a very difficult final.
“We were holding on at the end but we managed to win on penalties with Joe Malin making a save in the shoot-out, we don’t call him super Joe for nothing.”
MacKinnon has played in four Highland League Cup finals for Buckie, but the only success was in 2012 against Cove Rangers with the Jags defeated by Keith (2007), Clachnacuddin (2014) and Rothes (2020) on the other occasions.
He added: “This will be my fifth League Cup final for Buckie and I’ve only won one of the previous four so hopefully there will be a positive outcome this weekend to improve that record.
“But at the same it shows how hard it is to win this competition.”