They’re good friends and former team-mates but Ally MacDonald and Paul Brindle will set that aside for 90 minutes today in pursuit of North of Scotland Cup glory.
MacDonald will be in Brora Rangers colours for the showpiece fixture at Grant Street Park with Brindle lining up for Clachnacuddin against the side he played for from 2015 to 2021.
Whatever the outcome this afternoon their friendship will resume after the final whistle, although one will be in a better mood than the other.
‘We’ll be having a pint’
MacDonald said: “I’ve been speaking to Paul and we know the quality he’s got, he’s one of the players we need to stop if we’re to win the game.
“When you’re playing against friends that goes out the window for 90 minutes.
“We’re both professional enough to know that and Paul is definitely someone we need to keep quiet.
“Football and the Highland League especially, is great for meeting people and making friendships.
“But we also all know we’re there to do a job for our team and friendship doesn’t get in the way of performances for your team.
“I think that’s how it should be, we want to perform against each other.
“We could play the game and Paul and I could get sent off for kicking each other but we’ll be having a pint after the game that’s for sure.”
Brindle added: “Myself and Ally have been talking in the last few days, it’s been friendly there hasn’t been any wind-ups or anything like that.
“Ally is good enough as it is without me winding him up and firing him up. There’s a good buzz between us ahead of the final.
“Even if there was any fall-out on the park once the final whistle goes it’ll be forgotten about.
“We’ll catch up and have a pint afterwards, one of us will be disappointed because we won’t have got the result, but there won’t be any problems after the game.”
Lilywhites seeking unexpected success
Brindle won the North of Scotland Cup three times with Brora and helped Clach win the Highland League Cup in 2014.
This is Lilywhites’ first final since that triumph and after returning to the Inverness outfit in the summer Brindle would love to win it.
The 29-year-old attacker said: “It would mean a lot to win something with Clach again. We won the Highland League Cup which was totally out of the blue and unexpected.
“To a degree this would probably be similar in that nobody would expect us to win it.
“We’ve played Wick and Rothes and if we were to get the better of Brora in the final it would be a great achievement to beat teams of that quality.
“How you stop Brora is the million dollar question. The last time we played them (4-0 loss) we started well but then switched off a couple of times and you just can’t do that.
“The main thing for us is concentration, they’ve got some really good players, but in terms of ability I don’t think there’s much between the teams.”
At 34 MacDonald, who has won this competition five times in a decade at Dudgeon Park, doesn’t know how many more finals he’ll be involved in.
The defender added: “I think the hunger to win gets stronger because as you go on in your career you don’t know how much longer you’ve got left.
“That’s not something you think about at a younger age.
“In my career I want to win as many trophies as I can, I don’t know how many more cup finals I’ll be involved in.
“I want to enjoy it, but you only enjoy it by winning.”
- You can watch highlights and reaction from the North of Scotland Cup final and Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup final at 7pm on Monday at https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/tag/highland-league-weekly/