Dalbeattie Star boss Eddie Warwick claims Saturday’s clash with Gretna 2008 is a derby in name only.
The only Dumfries and Galloway sides in the Lowland League are due to meet at Raydale Park on Saturday.
But with the majority of the players on show likely to be from outwith the area, it may be lacking some of the usual bite.
Warwick, who worked at Gretna last season, said: “It’s a derby by name but certainly not by nature. I think you’d be struggling to have six local players between the two sides, which is crazy.
“Dalbeattie have had no choice to go in that direction whereas Gretna could have had the pick of the whole area but chose not to because they went in the Edinburgh direction with the consortium that runs the club.
“It’s not for want of us trying to be local. I’ll only have two or three local and they might only have one or two.”
Both sides changed managers in September after poor starts to the season, Warwick taking over from Jordan Williamson while Gretna replaced Stephen Hatfield with former Doncaster and Bristol City midfielder Michael McIndoe.
Star go into the game bottom of the table with five points, while Gretna are 14th with 20 points.
Warwick said: “They have picked up but, financially, they are far ahead of a lot of teams. My question would be whether they have picked up enough in relation to what they’re paying.
“They’re much further ahead of us in finances in terms of what they’re able to offer so they probably should be far superior.
“It’ll be a tough game, they’ve had a few good wins this year so we’ll see what happens.
“On paper, in terms of the money they’re paying, we shouldn’t be in the same ballpark as them but hopefully we will be.”
Gretna’s game against East Kilbride on Monday was called off, but the artificial surface at Raydale means this weekend’s game should beat the weather.
And that means Star will have their first competitive game since December 3, having defeated Queen of the South’s youngsters in a friendly last week.
Warwick said: “We hadn’t played for 20 days so it was imperative we played and got some fitness into the legs.
“It was only a friendly but it was good to get a win. Queens were a good, young and fit team. In the last 20 minutes I think their fitness showed and it was important for us to get through it.
“We’ll not have played for 28 days by the time we get to Gretna so we’ll need to be careful with some of the boys.”
