Paul Woods hopes Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie with Gretna can be the start of another memorable run in the competition for East Kilbride.
The defending Lowland League champions have had a campaign to forget so far, currently sitting 11 points off the pace in Scotland’s fifth tier.
But the Scottish Cup second round tie at home to Chris Humphrey’s Anvils will be a welcome distraction for Kilby.
In recent years, EK have tackled the likes of Celtic, Inverness and Stranraer in the competition and Woods hopes his side can see off Gretna to start the kind of run that will bring some meaning to a flagging season.
The Kilby winger, who scored in last week’s 4-0 South Challenge Cup win over East houses Lily, said: “With how poor the season has been so far, we maybe haven’t thought about the cup much, but when Saturday comes along everybody will be up for it and desperate to get through.
“We had a good run last year playing Inverness [in the fourth round] and everybody knows about the tie we had before with Celtic, so maybe this will be a good distraction for us.
“If we get some good draws, get as far as we can that can help our season.
“It’s exciting if you are in the hat for the next round and you are watching the draw, so hopefully that will be the case for us after this game.”
Woods played alongside Humphrey last season, helping Kilby lift the Lowland League title.
Now the former Motherwell winger is returning to K-Park in a managerial capacity, looking to pile the misery on his old club.
Gretna, however, haven’t been in the best of form either. They have yet to win a league match and squeezed past Hill of Beath 1-0 in the last round.
“It will be good to see Humps back,” said Woods.
“He did well for us and he was good in the changing room.
“Coming from the level he played at, some guys don’t like to mingle with the rest of the team but he was spot on.
“He has a lot of experience so he had a good bit of knowledge about the game and he was really good with the boys.
“We are definitely not the East Kilbride we were last season, but Humps will still know a few of the guys he played with.
“Hopefully, he’s not able to use that against us.”
Kick-off at K-Park on Saturday is 3pm.
