Larkhall can bet on a cup cracker

Oct 2 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

OF the five Scottish Junior Cup first round ties hosted in Lanarkshire on Saturday one sticks out a mile – Larkhall Thistle v Royal Albert.

Club officials maintain they have never met before in ‘the Scottish’, and the pairing comes as the clubs are currently ground-sharing at Gasworks Park.

Royal Albert, in their 80th year as a club, lost their ‘home’ ground at Robert Smillie Memorial Park last year, to make way for a new, larger Larkhall Academy.

Both managers expect their squads to be more or less at full strength for the tie.

Thistle boss Bobby Crilly said: “Albert look as though they have their best team in quite a few years, which could make for interesting possibilities.

“I arranged a friendly at Petershill in midweek to play some guys who haven’t played recently, and for those coming back from injury.

“This will give us a chance to see what shape they’re in, but all going well we should have 21 players to choose from on Saturday.”

Those making a comeback under the Petershill floodlights last night (Wednesday) included Robert Crossey, Andy Dorrans and David Forrester.

Albert boss Iain McCluskie said: “We have only one injury going into the tie, and that is a long-term one to Davie Dickson.

“We will certainly miss his experience but we have a big enough squad, with players who can come in and do the same job.

“We’re looking forward to the tie – the players have been talking about it since the draw was made.

“We’re playing much better than we were last season, and we’re hoping for a large crowd to create a good cup-tie atmosphere.”

With cup fever mounting, Larkhall Thistle boss Bobby Crilly and Royal Albert manager Iain McCluskie popped in to the town’s William Hill bookmakers to place a charity bet.

Now the team that scores the most goals will progress to the next round – and net a needy organisation a £200 windfall.

Gordon Campbell, manager of Larkhall’s William Hill, said: “We’ll place a £25 bet from each of the managers – Larkhall Thistle to win 3-1, and Royal Albert to win 2-1 – with the £200 pay-out going to a charity of the winning team’s choice.”

Thistle’s chosen charity is the Larkhall Youth Club for Children with Additional Support Needs, with club secretary Sandy Thomson’s son Ross in mind.

Albert have opted for Leukaemia Research, as striker John McMillan is undergoing treatment for his second bout.

Gordon hopes Larkhall punters will be prompted to have a flutter on the game themselves, and said: “We’ll be featuring both jerseys in a window display from today (Thursday) onwards, and will be providing lots of betting opportunities which are exclusive to our Union Street shop, where we will be laying on a pre-match buffet on Saturday.”