Peterhead skipper Scott Brown says his side need to be on top of their game to avoid a Scottish Cup shock against Lowland League side Civil Service Strollers on Saturday.
Brown said: “Civil have done really well in the Lowland League this season, they seem to be doing better this season compared to other years. We are under no illusions. This will be a tough game and we’ll need to show the same character as we did last week in the second half against Queens Park to get a result.”
“If we aren’t at it, then we’ll get beat. It’s as simple as that.”
Brown, who scored last week from the penalty spot against Queens Park, said he was proud of the performance the team put in last week as he explained: “With such a depleted team, and Del Lyle and Rusty McLean not playing in the first half, it would have been easy for the boys to throw in the towel at half time when we were losing. However, the way they responded, they showed real character. I was really pleased and proud of the boys.”
Many outside Peterhead didn’t see last weeks result coming, and Brown says that it was a result they badly needed as he added: “We had let ourselves down so badly in the pervious two games, it was a result we needed. We are coming into a spell in the league where we play teams around us, so if we can get on a wee run, then we can start to climb the table.”
The tie at Strollers’ Christie Gillies Park, is a potential banana skin for the Blue Toon, but Brown knows that going into this game as favorites brings a different kind of pressure.
The midfielder said: “There is always pressure when you play teams two leagues below you, but we only need to look at what we’ve done to teams in the past like Hearts and Dundee United. We’ve beaten them so if we turn up thinking it’s going to be easy, then it’s going to be a long afternoon.”
Some of the Strollers squad started their careers at clubs like Rangers, Celtic, Hibs and Hearts, and Brown thinks that this game will be seen by these players as a chance to prove a point.
“These guys will be trying to prove the point that they should be playing higher and be in our position. It’s up to us to stop them and to show them why we are favorites.”
After the performances of players like Danny Strachan, Lyall Cameron and Man of the Match, Grant Savoury, last week, Scott thinks that manager Jim McInally has a huge selection problem for the game.
“It’s a headache for the manager” said Brown before adding: “It’s probably the first time he’s had that with the amount of people available. If he goes with the same team as last week, then I don’t think many people would argue with it, but if he does make changes, then it’s up to the players to prove they deserve to be in the team.”
“I thought the boys that hadn’t been in the team done well last week and I think Grant was brilliant. They’ve given the manager a real problem for this one and games in the future.”
It’ll be the first time that the two sides have met, and the former St Johnstone player is looking forward to visiting a new ground as he finished by saying: “We can look forward to it from the aspect that we’re going to somewhere different. I’m anticipating them having a big crowd behind them, and we’ve got everything to lose but they’ve got nothing to lose.”
“If we get out preparation right, it should make our day a bit easier.”
