Caledonian Braves boss Ricky Waddell is looking to progress as far as he can in the Scottish Cup this season, but won’t treat first round opponents Newton Stewart lightly.
The South of Scotland League club visit Alliance Park tomorrow afternoon looking to cause an upset, but Waddell says his side will be well prepared.
He said: “It’s a big game for us. The Scottish Cup always provides that bit of prestige.
“It’s the first round, we’ve never been through the competition and our best-ever finish was the second round.
“We’re not taking anything lightly, we’ve prepared well. The boys have trained really well this week, so we’re ready to go and we’re prepared for tomorrow.
“It’s a prestigious cup, and if you can get through to the third, fourth or fifth round, it starts to get your club noticed.
“It can give your club exposure, give players and coaches good exposure, and show everybody what we’re doing, that we’re a positive, ambitious club – but I tend not to think too far ahead.
“We want to take care of Newton Stewart tomorrow, do our best, make sure we’re performing to the levels that I know we can.
“We’ve prepared well, the way we always do.”
Waddell has mixed feelings about Braves’ position at third in the Lowland League, and reckons there have been some dropped points so far this season.
He said: “I think it could have been better, if we look at some of the games, because we maybe could have turned some draws into wins – East Stirling being one.
“I was massively disappointed in the Stirling Uni game [3-1 defeat two weeks ago]; we didn’t deserve to win, didn’t play well enough, and I think that was a bit of a shot in the arm for us.
“Sometimes you can learn a lot from how we are in defeat, and it gives you a shot in the arm to say you can analyse and review a bit more.
“We’ve still got a lot of games to play though, it’s early days.
“We’ve still got Tranent to play at the end of the month, we’ve still got EK, Spartans, Broomhill, so plenty of football to come.
“We don’t really look too much at the table, we just prepare for each game the best way we can, and we’re confident we can win each game.”
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