Blantyre Vics boss John Gibson insists his side have nothing to fear from Troon in the Scottish Junior Cup this weekend, despite being on a poor run of league form.
Gibson admits three defeats on the spin have dented his young side’s confidence, but insists they deserved at least a point in their 2-1 defeat at Kilbirnie Ladeside in the West of Scotland League First Division.
And he says a 3-2 defeat to Troon in the South Challenge Cup shows they can live with their Premier League opponents.
Gibson said: “Troon will be a hard one. We’ve already played them this season in the other cup, it was a pretty even game, we lost 3-2, but they’re a good side and are going well.
“They’ll come in as favourites and as always when you’re playing a team above you it’s going to be hard.
“Teams in that league are doing really well and you can see that with some of the results in the Scottish Cup games.
“But we’ll go out and give a good account of ourselves, try to get into the next round, as we always do, and we’ll not be fearful of them.
“We’ve not been on a good run, that’s three in a row we’ve lost in the league.
“The two weeks before, it wasn’t good performances and we didn’t deserve anything from the games, but I thought we deserved something on Saturday.
“We started well, were 1-0 up through Andrew Gallacher, and then lost two goals in the last 15 minutes when we could have punished them and made better of situations we were in.”
Gibson admits it’s a good time for his side to get a break from the league, but wants them to learn from their cup clash.
He said: “It’s good to get into cup games. We always try to stay in as long as possible.
“It is good, it is a wee change and takes that pressure off of trying to get the three points, and that’s maybe where we are.
“There’s been quite a bit of pressure that these young lads have had to deal with.
“They were at a level before where the pressure of getting three points wasn’t that great, but now they’re in a position where they’re playing for a team where three points are the be-all and end-all.
“It has been a learning curve for them, so it’s a wee break for them, and I’m happy they have a break from that pressure.”
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