Home ties for local pair

Oct 2 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

STONEHOUSE Violet and Thorniewood United were handed home ties in the Scottish Cup first round as they entertain Kilbirnie Ladeside and Cruden Bay, respectively.

But Blantyre are Ayrshire-bound as they take on Whitletts Vics, while Wishaw make the long trek to Peterhead where they’re up against Longside.

Stonehouse face a stiff test against a side who are third in the Super League First Division, and who eliminated Shotts from the West of Scotland Cup in a penalty shoot-out a week ago.

Violet boss Brian Martin said: “They’ll be coming here on a high, but we’re looking forward to the tie.

“We’ve now got a half-decent squad together and we’re certainly not going to write off this game – we will give it our all.

“Against Auchinleck in the ‘West’ we could have gone 2-0 up but six minutes later we were 3-1 down – that can happen when you play teams three or four divisions above you.

“We’re not going to be too down-hearted if we lose, but we WILL be gutted if we lose without a fight.

“Now we’ve got a squad of 17 we’re looking forward to the league – in our last three games we were very limited for substitutions, but now I’ve got a few other guys on the bench, apart from my assistant Paul Canning!”

Thorniewood will still be without influential skipper John Fallon for the home tie against Cruden Bay, who lost 6-0 to Wishaw’s cup opponents Longside on Saturday.

But the recent good form of Stephen Mullen, Joe Tobin and Martin Devlin will give the Viewpark a boost going into the tie.

Blantyre Vics go into the game against Whitletts without captain and driving midfielder Brian Glancy, who is on honeymoon, and striker Sean McGuire, who has damaged ankle ligaments.

Wing ace Kevin Riley is on his way back to fitness, and could claim a seat on the bench.

Manager Willie Harvey said: “Whitletts, like ourselves, have had a good start to the season, winning their first four games, scoring virtually the same amount of goals as us, and conceding virtually the same – so something has to give.

“We want to win and hope to draw a big name, which will bring in some revenue for the club, but the Scottish Cup is not the be-all and end-all for me – my main priority is the league and starting to climb back up the divisions.”

Wishaw boss Alex Young welcomes and dreads the tie at Peterhead in equal measure.

He said: “I’m dreading the journey – I’ll be at a wedding the night before and, with my dad on holiday, I’m left running the shop.

“I expect to be up at 4am for my paper run, and it looks as if I could be going straight onto the bus, which leaves Wishaw at 8am.”

On a brighter note he added: “Midfielder Graham Stewart, who has been out injured since the second-last game of last season, played for 40 minutes in a midweek friendly against Stenhousemuir and will be on the bench against Longside.

“That’s a bonus.

“David Lynch, who has been out injured for most of this season, should be back in the squad and Robert Young will take over in goal – Scott Brunton is out after damaging his knee against Kilwinning.”

But he also sounded a note of caution, saying: “Longside won 6-0 on Saturday and are third in the Northern Super League; we’ll need to be at our best to take something from the tie.

“But it’s the cup – we created a shock at Broxburn last season, let’s hope we can do the same again this season.”