Thorniewood United boss Jamie Nesbitt says his side are looking to take a West of Scotland League Cup scalp from Blantyre Vics on Saturday, because it will show his players where their aspirations lie.
The Viewpark club welcome John Gibson’s Vics to Robertson Park in their first-round tie, and Nesbitt knows that while Blantyre are at the bottom end of the Premier League, they’re still a level above.
But he says his side will go into the game full of confidence following Saturday’s 4-0 win over Ardeer Thistle, which has left them fourth in the table, four points off second-placed Gartcairn.
“It’s a great opportunity for the lads to go and play against a Premier League team and showcase what they can do,” said Nesbitt.
“They all have aspirations to play at that level, it’s a pretty young side, so that’s where they want to be.
“We know it will be tough, but we’ll just treat it like any other game, try to play to our strengths, and hopefully on the day we get the result.
“Blantyre are a right good side, I’ve watched them on a few occasions, and Gibby’s a very experienced manager with a good backroom team – they’re a good side.
“We will have to be on top of our game on Saturday if we’re going to get anything out of it, but it’s a one-off game, anything can happen.
“I think we have to go into it with confidence. The Conferences let you know where you are, at some form of level.
“You don’t go and take something away from home at Port Glasgow or Renfrew if you’re not on decent form – but we’ll just keep plodding away and see what comes.”
United cruised past Ardeer with strikes from Oliver Grenfell, Ally Small and Declan Brown giving them a 3-0 interval lead, with Matty Clarke adding a fourth in the second half.
Nesbitt says this is just his players getting the reward for hard work.
“We said five or six weeks ago that we’d take it a game at a time and try to put a run together to see how it went,” he said.
“I don’t think you can look at the fixtures and try to back-point in these Conferences and say ‘we’ll beat them’ and we’ve given ourselves a right good chance of being close to finishing in that top four.
“It’s all credit to the players. I told the players in pre-season that they had a fantastic opportunity and if they believed in themselves they would get that chance.
“The guys are due all the credit for getting us into this position, but it felt over the last five weeks that we were winning games and not really moving.
“Gartcairn winning on Saturday helped us out, and we’re delighted.”
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