Livingston’s supporters’ team – FC Livingston GS – are hoping to prove they are the best of British this weekend as they battle it out with Preston in the IFA British Cup final.
It’s a rematch of the 2013/14 final when Livi won 2-1 thanks to a late Richie Kay goal. That was the club’s first British title, with a second following four years later when they defeated Rotherham 2-0 in that final.
Gretna’s the location on Saturday as they look to make it a hat-trick of titles – and bounce back in style from last weekend’s Scottish Cup final defeat to Airdrie. Livi suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat but have the chance to make up for that disappointment against Preston.
Midfielder Tom Cheeseman said: “Preston are historically the best supporters’ team and they have won the British title eight times. But I would say we’re pretty evenly matched going into the game.
“It’s quite hard to judge as I really think that it’s a 50/50 type of game and hopefully it can be us who plays better on the day.
“We lost in the Scottish Cup final on penalties last weekend to Airdrie and we were all pretty disappointed about that but I think that’s probably inspired us a little and maybe given that extra motivation.”
He added: “Preston have beaten Motherwell and Airdrie to get to the final so we know that they’re a really good team. We’ve got a bus going down and we’ll have a fair few fans at the game so hopefully it will be a good day.”
Livi reached the final after away victories against Rochdale and Watford in the first two rounds before Jordan McAlpine produced penalty shoot-out heroics in goal as they edged past Alloa Athletic on spot-kicks in the semi-final to book their showdown with Preston North End.
John Alexander had levelled things up with an injury-time strike before Livi won 4-1 in the shoot-out.
Cheeseman added: “It has been a really enjoyable experience so far and we’re just hoping that we can top it off at the weekend with a win. We beat Rochdale away from home 4-2 in the first and then got drawn away again to Watford in the next round which was a great experience.
“We actually flew down for that game which was the first time we had done that and it was definitely something a bit different. We beat them 5-2 but the Watford guys were absolute class. They helped with the travel cost and then sorted us out with free tickets for the Watford game against Wigan later that day.
“It’s been an interesting cup journey for us so far and hopefully we can finish it with a win. I’m sure we’ll have a drink when we get back up the road but you want it to be a happy one.”
Don't miss the latest news from the West Lothian Courier. Sign up to our free newsletter here
