Willie Harvey has challenged his Rutherglen Glencairn side to show how good they are by knocking Caledonian Braves out of the South Challenge Cup.
Glens make their first ever visit to Alliance Park on Saturday to take on Ricky Waddell’s Lowland League outfit and though Harvey expects a tough game, he insists he’d be more concerned playing a West of Scotland Premier League side in the third round tie.
Harvey says a top-performing Glencairn side can emerge with a win, but warned they need to keep standards going throughout the second half as well.
“Braves are the favourites,” said Harvey. “They’re two divisions above us in the Lowland League, so everything’s on them.
“But we’ll go there with confidence. We don’t look on the Lowland League as a league that’s way, way above us.
“In fact, if I’m being honest, I’d be more concerned about playing a Premier League team.
“I genuinely feel that we’re capable of winning the game if we turn up and perform the way we can.
“They’ve got to have ambitions, whether that’s away from the club or at the club. If you have ambitious players, you succeed.
“If you’ve got players who are quite happy to go along with what they’re doing then it’s no use.
“They’ve got to go out and prove, week in week out, that they’re good enough to play for Glencairn and are good enough to play at higher levels.”
Harvey has warned his side that they can’t afford a second-half performance like they put in on Saturday’s 4-1 win over Maryhill.
Glens were already 4-1 up on in the West of Scotland Cup first round tie at half-time.
And Harvey says if they switch off like that again this weekend, it will see them knocked out of the cup.
“I pointed out to them that they won’t get away with things like that at Caledonian Braves on Saturday,” he explained.
“If we go and blast them away in the first 15 minutes with four goals and then put in the performance we put in, you can find yourself behind, all of a sudden, because you’re playing against a different standard.
“Winning the game would be a scalp for us and gives us a boost going into the rest of the season, but we just can’t seem to get the league started properly.
“We’re sitting in a false position in the league with the games in hand, and it’s a stop-start situation for us.”
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