Ross Tokely doesn’t want Nairn County to relinquish their grip on the North of Scotland Cup as they start their defence against familiar faces Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
The Wee County welcome Caley Thistle to Station Park tonight in the first round of the tournament they won in dramatic fashion last season.
Boss Tokely is aware of the quality of Nairn’s opposition having coached many of them in the Caley Thistle youth ranks in recent seasons.
He said: “I know the Caley Thistle team well – I’ve probably coached every player in it apart from Cameron Ferguson.
“They’re a good bunch of young lads and some of them have done really well in the first-team this season.
“It’s a good game for us. We’re cup holders and after doing so well last season, we want to try to repeat that if we can.
“It wasn’t an easy run last season and it’s not going to be easy again this season.”
Mixed bag for Wee County
In the Breedon Highland League, Nairn have won one of their opening four fixtures and lost 3-2 to Rothes on Friday, having led 2-0.
Tokely added: “It’s been a mixed bag in terms of positives and negatives so far this season.
“Friday hurt big time – when I was a player I found it helped having a game quickly in terms of trying to bounce back.
“Hopefully the guys can put two halves together and produce a performance, but so far this season it’s been a bit of a mixed bag.”
Inverness are set to field a youthful line-up, with former Rothes boss Ross Jack and veteran striker Billy Mckay taking the team, while first-team boss Duncan Ferguson will observe.
Ferguson said: “It won’t be that team from Saturday which drew with Montrose – it will be the subs that haven’t been playing and the younger lads from the 16s. We will give them minutes.”
Brora Rangers set for Ross County test
Elsewhere in the North of Scotland Cup, Brora Rangers face Ross County at Dudgeon Park.
Cattachs manager Steven Mackay is hoping to inflict a second cup shock on the Staggies in the space of a few days.
The Premiership outfit were defeated by League Two Spartans in the League Cup at the weekend, and Mackay expects to face a strong Ross County side this evening.
He said: “We expect an extremely tough game – Ross County will be disappointed with the result at the weekend and they’ll probably welcome this game because it’s an early opportunity to put things right.
“I imagine they’ll field a strong team and there may be players who need to make amends from the weekend.
“It’s going to be a really difficult task for us, but it’s a good opportunity to test ourselves against Premiership players.”
Brora top the Highland League with five wins out of five, and Mackay is also targeting cup success after leading Nairn to glory last term.
He added: “We’ve had a good start to the season, so there’s no reason why we can’t get a result and get through.
“We’ve had three clean sheets out of five games and we’re scoring goals and creating opportunities, so we go into it with confidence.
“Winning silverware is a pre-requisite at Brora. At the start of the season, there’s an expectation to challenge for the league and to win cups.
“We know it will be a tough evening with the strength of the opposition, but this is a competition that we want to win and nothing has changed in that regard.”
Lossiemouth progress
Meanwhile, Lossiemouth have already progressed to the quarter-final of the North of Scotland Cup after Fort William – who the Coasters were set to face on Wednesday – withdrew from the competition.
Deveronvale look to keep good run going in Aberdeenshire Cup
Garry Wood hopes Deveronvale can build on their good start to the season by taking the scalp of Aberdeen in the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup.
The Banffers face the Dons in round one of the tournament tonight at Princess Royal Park (6.30pm kick-off).
Vale are unbeaten in their last four Breedon Highland League games, claiming eight points in the process.
Player-manager Wood said: “After the first game against Inverurie Locos (2-0 defeat), we’ve done really well since.
“If you’d offered me eight points from the run of games we had, then I would have taken that.
“It’s been a good start, but that’s all it is just now – a start – and we need to keep trying to build on it.
“The league and the cups are both priorities. But with where we are at the moment we’ve got more chance of winning a cup than winning the league.
“You’re four games away from winning a trophy in these cups and we’d really like to do well in the cups.
“But we know it’s going to be a difficult game against Aberdeen.
“They’re full-time players, so they’re going to have that bit of quality that we maybe don’t see in the Highland League on a day-to-day basis.”
At the weekend, Deveronvale came from 2-0 down to defeat Strathspey Thistle 3-2 with half-time subs Adam Reid and Matthew Petermann performing starring roles in the comeback.
Wood revealed they may have played themselves into contention to start against the Dons.
He added: “The two subs that came on at half-time changed the game when they came on.
“That’s what I want subs to do when they came on and they’re at the forefront of my mind when it comes to this game.”
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