Graeme Stewart has challenged Buckie Thistle to make history in the pyramid play-offs.
The Jags face Lowland League champions East Kilbride at K Park in the first leg of the play-off on Saturday.
Manager Stewart wants to guide Buckie into the uncharted territory of in the SPFL next season.
Thistle have a storied history in the Breedon Highland League with this season’s title triumph their 12th championship in total.
But Stewart is keen to create fresh history for the club by becoming just the second north side – after Cove Rangers in 2019 – to get promoted through the play-offs.
He said: “It would be a great bit of history for Buckie if we could get promoted.
“Buckie is a club with great history. To be the second club from the Highland League to get promoted through the play-offs would be a great thing to add to the history of the club.
“If you’re a player or anybody involved with Buckie it would be a great thing to say you were part of.
“The fans would always be able to look back and remember the team that got promoted.
“There’s an opportunity for everyone to go down in history at Buckie.”
Jags on firm footing to go for glory
Buckie contested the pyramid play-offs after their previous Highland League win in 2017 and lost out 4-3 on aggregate to East Kilbride.
However, Stewart believes they are better equipped now to achieve promotion.
He added: “The club is in a better position to try to get promoted than it has been in the past.
“The work we’ve done over the last seven years with the squad we’ve got and the position the club is in we’re more ready than we have been previously.
“In another two or three years we’ll probably be even more ready because it’s the way we work to keep trying to progress and improve.
“When we won the league seven years ago we had a good team, but it was probably only a good 12 or 13.
“Now we’ve got a good 17 or 18 so we’ve got a better squad with more depth.
“When I look at everything I’d say we’re the most ready we’ve ever been at Buckie for games of this magnitude.
“But we also know East Kilbride are a top team and we’ll have to be at our best to get a result.”
Kilby have sights set on elevation
East Kilbride won the Lowland League by an impressive 12-point margin, but their assistant manager Simon Ferry says it will mean nothing if they fail to get promoted.
The former Peterhead midfielder and coach joined Kilby last summer as Mick Kennedy’s number two following a year as manager of another Lowland League side, Broomhill.
Ferry, who was with the Blue Toon from 2015 until 2022, said: “Promotion was the ambition at the start of the season. We don’t feel we’ve achieved anything by winning the league.
“If we don’t go up then it means nothing really. Our ambition at the start of the season was to get promoted.
“But we know Buckie’s ambition is exactly the same, to get into League Two next year.
“One of the most difficult games we had last season at Broomhill was the Scottish Cup tie at Buckie (which Broomhill won 3-1).
“Buckie have got the three things I look for in a team: they’re organised, they play at a high intensity and they’ve got quality.
“It will be really tough, but I believe we’ve got the same qualities so it should be a cracking tie.”
