Rutherglen Glencairn boss Willie Harvey has urged people in the town to back them as they head into a historic first-ever Scottish Cup tie on Saturday.
Glens host West of Scotland League Premier Division side Kilwinning Rangers in the preliminary round of the senior competition, and Harvey says a win would provide such a boost for everybody at the club.
But he also says the sacrifices that guys like secretary Peter Ferguson and others at the club made to have Scottish Cup games at the Hamish B. Allan Stadium deserve to be rewarded.
And he hopes the ground will be packed out with locals on Saturday as they seek to watch a landmark moment.
Harvey said: “I think everybody at the club is buzzing for it. A lot of work and preparation has gone into it, a lot of people gave up a hell of a lot of their time to get a licence to play in it.
“Everybody’s looking forward to it, and I hope we get a good turnout from people in Rutherglen to support us.
“It’s important to get as many people down to the ground as possible.
“It’s a historic occasion, it’s something that’s going to go down in Glencairn’s history as the first senior Scottish Cup game, so it would be nice for people to be there.
“There’s a commemorative programme, we’re doing things on Facebook where we have players trying to encourage locals to come out and watch the game.
“It’s great for the players as well, and from the outside looking in, we were seeing the likes of Darvel, Auchinleck Talbot, Clydebank all going to the second and third rounds, getting televised games and seeing all the hype about it.
“You’re hoping that if you can get by this round you might get the draw that gets you the televised game, and it raises the profile of the club. The higher we can raise that, the better.”
Harvey says they’re no strangers to Kilwinning and had a recent opportunity to catch them in action.
He added: “Myself and Peter went to see them against Darvel – not because we’re playing against them, just because it was a Friday night and it’s a game of football!
“They’re a big, strong, fit team, who play the ball well. They have a big lad up front and a couple of players at the back who look decent – but they won’t hold any fear for us.
“If we can get through it’s a massive lift for everybody and it will bring a feelgood factor.”
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