With the greatest of respect to the Fraserburgh players who walk out at Ibrox tomorrow, chances are that the Rangers supporters won’t know enough about them to have any reason to feel animosity towards them.
Legend of The Broch, captain Willie West, has a secret though, and one that the home supporters probably won’t take too kindly to.
“I was actually an Aberdeen season ticket holder up until I was about 12,” West said.
“I’ll probably get booed now that I’ve told you that!
“Now I’m a Broch fan through and through, though. I’ve been with the club for a long time, but there are people there who have been involved in it for a lot longer than me, and probably will be for a lot longer after I’ve left.
“This day is a great reward for them and for all the years they have put into this club and this community.
“It’s great for them, and they will get to enjoy their day out. Their day might actually be a lot more enjoyable than ours!”
West has turned out for Fraserburgh on over 700 occasions, so he knows as well as anyone just how much this Scottish Cup tie means to the club and the community.
He also knows though, through the bitter experience of facing a couple of Rangers teams through the years, just how monumental the task is that lies ahead.
West was part of the Fraserburgh team who hosted a Rangers side led by caretaker manager Graeme Murty in the Scottish Cup at Bellslea Park back in 2018, going down in the end to a Josh Windass hat-trick.
“I was striker then; I’ve had to drop back as I’ve got a bit older!” he said.
“I was up against David Bates, who went on to play for Scotland and went to Germany to play.”
I refresh West’s memory that the other centre back that day was Fabio Cardoso, who went on to play for Porto.
“Did he?” he replied, somewhat incredulously.
“Really? Wow.”
If Cardoso didn’t leave a lasting impression, one man in the middle of the pitch that day for the visitors certainly did.
“We all remembered him from Spurs and Portsmouth in the Premier League, but he still had it alright. He was brilliant.”
If the scoreline that day was expected, and indeed respectable, the same couldn’t be said for the meeting between Fraserburgh and the Rangers B team earlier this season in the Challenge Cup, with West and his teammates on the wrong end of a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of the Ibrox youngsters.
“Yeah, I also played in that game, unfortunately,” he said.
“That was a lesson that day. We’ll take some of that into the game on Sunday.
“They were very impressive. It’s probably one of the toughest games I’ve ever played.
“Their touch, their movement, we just couldn’t live with it, and 5-0 was probably a wee bit harsh on them.
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“So, we’re under no illusions over what might face us when we come up against the first team.
“We’re determined to enjoy the day, but we also want to give a good account of ourselves. We want to go there, work hard, back each other up, and hopefully we’ll get a wee bit of luck along the way too.”
Earlier in his career, West got a chance to see just how the other half live, so he is keenly aware of the stark differences between the way the Fraserburgh players would have prepared for this game, and the luxuries afforded to the Rangers players in their own preparations.
“I was down at Murray Park for a game once when I was in the youths,” he said.
“I think Charlie Adam and Ross McCormack were playing, and we got a tour of the place. It was unbelievable.
“They had a pitch there that was an exact replica of Ibrox and everything, so the build up to the game for the two teams has probably been a wee bit different.
“I’m an account manager for a company that sells valves and provides services to the oil and gas industry, so I need to fit in my fitness work around that. We train twice a week with the club, but most of us will also be doing our own kind of thing too.
“I try to get into the gym most mornings for about half six, quarter to seven, and get 45 minutes or so in before I start work.”
Something to bear in mind perhaps, the next time a Premiership player is grousing over their hectic schedule.
As West alluded to, the trip to Ibrox will be a day to remember not only for the Fraserburgh squad, but for everyone associated with the club, and chairman Michael Murray is also relishing the tie for a number of reasons.
There is the financial aspect, of course, but Murray also believes the experience can have a wider resonance.
“We pride ourselves on our youth policy,” Murray said.
“We have a long history of bringing young players through into our first team.
“We have players from about five or six years old right through to about 15 or 16, and they will all be coming down and will be able - alongside our under 18s and under 21s – to watch the guys that they aspire to be playing against the guys that our first team players aspire to be!
“So, it’s great for that side of it. There are in excess of 100 of these youngsters coming down so that they can get fully immersed in it.
“Every one of them can aspire to one day be involved in these sorts of games. So, as much as it is a fairytale tie in terms of a Highland League team playing one of the biggest teams in the country and there is the financial element to it, it’s just as important from that point of view.
“This is what a big Scottish Cup tie like this can mean to a club like ours.”
Around 1800 fans of The Broch will be making the trip to Glasgow between the away end and hospitality, though the number of Rangers fans who turn up on the day remains to be seen.
That’s why Murray, an accountant by trade, isn’t getting carried away just yet over the windfall that may be coming Fraserburgh’s way. But whatever they do receive, will, he promises, be spent wisely.
“I refuse to answer this one!” he said.
“I won’t be counting my chickens before they have hatched, but I do know that we have a long way to go here in terms of our facilities, and I hope that this will help us steer the club in the right direction.
“I would love to come up with a fantasy figure, but what I will say is that whatever that final figure may be, we will ensure that it is invested to benefit the long-term future of the club.”
