Blantyre Vics boss John Gibson has warned his side not to become a West of Scotland League Cup scalp for Thorniewood United.
The sides clash at Robertson Park in the first round on Saturday, with Jamie Nesbitt’s Conference B side going into the game on the back of a 4-0 win over Ardeer Thistle.
Vics are struggling in the Premier League, and though Gibson says they can take positives from Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home to leaders Pollok, he knows they will be a target.
He said: “Thorniewood will see us as a scalp, especially with us being a Premier League team when they’re in the Conferences, so they will be up for it and we need to make sure we battle our corner.
“They’re going well in their league, so it will be a hard one for us.
“They’ve had a lot of good results this season, they’ll be confident because they’ve been winning games.
“They’ll be thinking that because we’re not winning games we’ll not be at it, so they’ll probably fancy their chances against us, even though we’re in the league above.
“We will need to make sure we go there with a positive attitude and try to get into the next round, because we’ve done well in the cups this season.”
Gibson felt his side deserved better than their 1-0 defeat against Pollok, but admits they need more consistency.
Stuart McCann scored right on the verge of half-time to give Pollok the win, though Ryan McGregor missed a second-half penalty for the visitors.
Gibson said: “I thought we deserved something out of the game, the players were excellent.
“Pollok are top of the league and they’re a good side, but we switched off just before half-time – I think it was the 46th minute – and they scored, which changed the game-plan a wee bit.
“We came back out and, for me, dominated the second half and played really well.
“We had a few wee half-chances, should have got an equaliser, and probably deserved to – but when you’re down there you don’t get the breaks.
“Even their goal was fortunate; they’ve tried to hit a long free-kick, the boy’s miskicked it and it has landed right at one of their players’ feet... it’s just one of those.
“I was devastated, because they deserved something out of the game, but there were a lot of positives to take out of it.”
Gibson added: “We’ve got to kick on from this now, and if we play like that against teams down that second half of the table we should be hoping to pick up more points.
“Our last three games have been very good, but we’ve got to show consistency and try to pick up points now.
“If you start winning games you get into a winning habit, and that’s what Thorniewood have, you keep going.
“We need to start winning games and try to get a wee bit of confidence growing.”
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