THE 'Road to Hampden Park' and the Scottish Cup Final in May starts this weekend when the first round action kicks off in the Capital with Edinburgh University hosting Civil Service Strollers.
The University have been victorious in recent Scottish Cup games with wins recorded against top Highland League clubs Deveronvale and Keith, while they narrowly lost out to Highland League champions Cove Rangers last season.
Civil Service Stroller
s, on the other hand, have only played in the national competition once in the past ten seasons. Since the Scottish Cup became an all-inclusive draw only last season with the demise of the traditional Scottish Qualifying Cups (North and South) the Strollers were eliminated 2-1 by Selkirk and their previous involvement was back in January 1998 when they lost 3-0 to Albion Rovers at Marine Drive.
Edinburgh University and Civil Service Strollers have never met before in the Scottish Cup although they have played each other seven times in the Qualifying Cup with the Strollers narrowly ahead on a 4-3 advantage.
Edinburgh University head coach Dougie Samuel reflected on his side's 3-2 defeat to Dalbeattie Star on Saturday despite leading 2-0 at half time.
"It was a disappointing result but an improved performance from the team after losing the previous midweek to Heriot-Watt University," said Samuel. "We were poor against Heriot-Watt but the players responded and produced our best 45 minutes of the season in the first half against Dalbeattie.
Our match against Civil Service Strollers is a big game because of our success in recent seasons in the Scottish Cup.
It is a chance to kick-start our season and we know what a thrill it is to have your name in the hat for the next round so we are determined to be in that position again."
Samuel will have 17-year-old goalkeeper Mark Tait making his Scottish Cup debut after embarking on a university degree course. Tait previously played with the very successful Leith Athletic Under-17 team.
Civil Service Strollers, meanwhile, were bitterly disappointed that their game against Ormiston was postponed on Saturday because their surface was unplayable. "It was shocking preparation for our Scottish Cup tie," sighed the Strollers manager, Keith Stewart. "It means that the University have another game under their belts. I watched them last Wednesday against Heriot-Watt and they play a very rigid back four which means they will be very difficult to break down.
"However we have players who can score goals, especially Tony Currie and Paul Lynch, so we are going to Peffermill looking for a win."
The full article contains 446 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
