Dumbarton’s Ally Love has joked that causing a Scottish Cup upset with Dumbarton against Kilmarnock on Saturday could lead to an awkward post-match meal.
The Sons travel to Ayrshire to face the Premiership side in the fourth round of the flagship tournament looking to cause a shock.
However, Kilmarnock lad Love, who grew up watching Killie with brother Robert, will have family and friends in both ends of Rugby Park.
Love told the Lennox: “There will be members of the family at both ends. I’ve already had messages from people, so I think it’ll be split.
“My other half and her family will be in the Dumbarton end with their scarves on, and half of my family will be in the Kilmarnock end. It’ll be split down the middle.
“We’re hopefully going out for dinner and a couple of drinks afterwards, which could be interesting depending on the outcome of the game!
“The Scottish Cup is something that means a lot to the Kilmarnock fans, and Killie lifting the cup in 1997 is still heavily talked about.
“They’ll certainly have a good crowd there because of the tournament. As a young boy I went to Kilmarnock games with my brother.
“As I’ve got older and played at numerous clubs it got harder and harder to follow them personally, but they are still one of the first scores I look for after a game on a Saturday.”
The game comes a decade on from Love scoring in a shock win for Annan Athletic against Rangers at Ibrox in a Division Three game, with the forward revealing what the Sons need to do to cause an upset of their own. He said: “First and foremost you need to defend your box well.
“When you’re playing against full-time clubs, 90 per cent of the time they’ll have more of the ball.
“When we beat Rangers at Ibrox we had to defend well and be hard to beat, but then when the opportunities come along you need to take them.
“We could play a team at a higher level and we’d know we’d get a good few opportunities. But against a Premiership side we know we probably won’t get as many opportunities as we’re used to.
“Being hard to beat and defending well is vital. When the chances come we have to try and take them to cause an upset.
“It certainly gives us a good platform to build on. We’ll go there with a game-plan that we hope will cause them problems.”
And Love hopes the Sons support will travel to Ayrshire in big numbers, dreaming of a cup shock.
“The support will be massive,” he added.
“When I was out injured I was down at Cumnock and watched the fans standing in the pouring rain being drenched.
“They have backed us from the get go."
