The quarter-finals of the Grill League Cup take place on Saturday – with the only all-Premier League encounter pitting Rothie Rovers against Bridge of Don Thistle at Rothienorman.
Rovers boss Kevin Beaton is reasonably content with the start his squad has made to the campaign, saying: “It’s early days, but our aim was to progress from the group stages of the league cup and we’ve achieved that.
“We’ve had a really tough start to the league and picked up four points and, if I’m honest, I’m slightly disappointed.
“We had a great win at Hermes and then lost a couple of goals in stoppage time when 2-0 up. The highs and lows of football!
“Although we lost 3-2, we gave Culter a wee scare in midweek, but we’re looking to keep improving.
“Thistle have made a great start to their season, they’ve a lot of experienced players and a very experienced manager in Lewis Muirhead, and it’ll be a hard game, but we’re the home team, it’s a quarter final and this is the kind of game you want to be involved in.
“We have a few lads missing tomorrow and we’ll still be putting a strong team on the park and the lads who come in know that a good performance will see them retain the jersey for the next match.
“We’ve a wee break from the league with three cup games in succession and we’d like a few cup runs.”
With a 100% record in both league and cup competitions to date, Jags manager Muirhead is understandably pleased with the way things have gone so far, saying: “There are areas, such as shape and personnel, where there remains much to do and where we have to improve.
“Around eight boys have left from last season and we’ve taken the same number in who are a good age and are the future for us to work with, but we are very much a work in progress.
“We changed the whole summer process, where, for the past three seasons, we enjoyed a great pre-season but didn’t take it into August.
“This time round we did it differently and spent some time analysing individual players and psychologically, instead of them thinking ‘we’ve arrived’ when the competitive action starts, we took a different approach.
“We signed Craig Mackie from East End and he’ll give us something different upfront once he recovers from injury, but, as far as tomorrow is concerned, I genuinely believe Rothie will be favourites on their own patch – but we’ll do our best on the day with the 11 we have on the park.
“So far this season, with the depth of squad we have, they’ve found a way.”
The winners of the Rothie v Bridge on Don clash will face either Dyce or Islavale, who meet at Ian Mair Park, while at Crombie Park, trophy holders and favourites Culter entertain Longside.
The Glenury Park encounter between Stonehaven and Burghead Thistle completes the last-eight line-up.
In the McBookie.com Premier League, Sunnybank have the chance to open up a four-point advantage at the top of the table when Ellon United visit Heathryfold, while, at the other end of the table, East End will be desperate to pick their first points at Maud, as will Nairn St. Ninian, who welcome Hermes.
It should be a tight match at Raemoss Park where Buchanhaven Hearts host Newmachar United, while Stoneywood Parkvale’s trip to College Park to face Fraserburgh United is another which is tight to call.
In the Championship, Deveronside and Banks o’ Dee JFC are the only sides with maximum points after four games and both are on the road tomorrow, with the latter at Cruden Bay and the Banff outfit facing a tough task at much-improved Lossiemouth United.
At Westburn Park, Dufftown are at home to New Elgin, Glentanar make the trip to Banchory St. Ternan, and Hall Russell United have home advantage against Whitehills.
All matches get underway at 2pm.
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