Shotts boss John McKeown is aiming to achieve something he never managed as a player by taking Shotts Bon Accord to the semi-finals of the Scottish Junior Cup this weekend.
The West of Scotland First Division outfit travel north to Dundee East Craigie on Saturday hoping to cause another upset in the competition, having knocked out Premier sides Arthurlie and Beith in previous rounds.
East Craigie are pushing for the title in the East Region Midlands League and will be the favourites for the tie at Craigie Park, but McKeown reckons that will suit his side as he aims to go one better than he ever did as a player.
The former defender, who played for Wishaw and Cumnock, said: “It’s a massive game. Any club in our position, you want to do your absolute best to get to the semi-final.
“It is huge financially and huge for the players to get there.
“I don’t think I ever played in a Scottish Cup semi-final so it would be lovely to get there as a manager.
“We got to the quarters last year and lost to Auchinleck so hopefully we can go one step further.
“Dundee will fancy it looking at our form. That’s a couple of defeats in a row now so we need to pick ourselves up.
“I don’t tend to worry about us too much against the so-called bigger sides. When we play teams we are evenly matched with, we sometimes take our eye off the ball. I don’t know why that is and it needs to be knocked out of them pretty quickly.”
McKeown was in Dundee on Saturday on a spying mission to take a closer look at their opponents, while assistant Martin Devlin took the squad for their 4-0 defeat to Dundonald Bluebell that saw them crash out of the South Challenge Cup.
It was their heaviest defeat of the season so far and McKeown knows his side will need to step up their game.
He added: “Watching Dundee, they are a good, young side with plenty of mobility. They’ve got a lot of legs in them and play with a freedom that most young teams do.
“We are in for a tough game and we won’t underestimate them. I will be getting that message across this week, that’s for sure.
“You don’t want to go into your biggest game of the season off the back of your biggest defeat of the season but hopefully it acts as a trigger for the boys. I don’t think the weekend was a 4-0 game from what I’ve been told. There was a strong wind and we lost some sloppy goals.
“In the second half we had a few chances ourselves. It’s disappointing to be out the cup but we made a few changes to keep people fresh for a big game this weekend.”
Kick-off on Saturday is 1.30pm.
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