Inverness CT v Elgin City: Elgin seek a Highland fling after 17-year wait to face Inverness

Published on Friday 7 January 2011 18:05

Scottish Cup At Caledonian Stadium, today, 3pm BBC Online

• Elgin celebrated their elevation into the Scottish Football League but have waited quite some time to play near neighbours Inverness competitively Picture: Robert Perry

In days gone by, trips by Elgin City to Inverness were regarded as high-profile occasions.

Elgin, as one of the Highland League's most successful and prominent clubs, enjoyed many a joust with Inverness Thistle and Caledonian before those clubs merged to enter the Scottish Football League. Four-figure attendances were perfectly common when Elgin met Thistle and Caley, either at Borough Briggs or the now-demolished Inverness venues of Kingsmills Park and Telford Street.

Since the Inverness merger of 1994, Elgin haven't played a competitive game against the "new" team from the Highland capital. That will change this afternoon, Ross Jack taking his Third Division side to Inverness for a Scottish Cup tie against Caledonian Thistle.

"It is a huge game," explains Jack, the Elgin manager. "It is 17 years since there has been a competitive game between Elgin and an Inverness team so the response and interest has been immense.

"I'm expecting us to take 1000 fans through to the game, which is unbelievable really. The whole place has been buzzing in the build-up to the game."

It is fitting that this tie arrives at a time when Elgin are at least threatening to live up to their historic size. Their struggles since entering the senior set-up have been highlighted, perhaps unfairly, in comparison to the success of Inverness, Ross County and Peterhead. Against that backdrop, attendances at Borough Briggs have failed to reach what could regularly be relied upon in their Highland League days.

This season, Jack's team have made an early promotion charge. Elgin currently sit fourth in Division Three, even if their manager publicly stresses ambitions remain low-key.

"We had a very hard pre-season and now the players are getting the sorts of breaks we didn't get last year, especially in home games," says Jack. "There is now a belief that we can be up there at the right end of the league.

"But all we have done is give ourselves a chance. Maybe we can sneak under the radar into the play-offs.

"We have managed to pick up ex-Ross County and ex-Inverness players and would like to have more boys from the north, but the bar is being raised every week. We also have seven or eight from a first-team squad of 19 who travel from the central belt.

"That's a huge commitment, for not much money. What we promise to give guys is an opportunity to play and a platform to perform on. Some have knocked us back for more money in the Highland League or junior leagues, I'm not interested in that kind of player. Those who sign offer us huge commitment and are prepared to do so."

The reality is that Elgin are only four points from the summit of the table. Which is in stark contrast to their earlier campaigns; when sceptics complained that teams finishing at the bottom of Scotland's lowest tier should face demotion, many had Elgin in mind.

"The crowds haven't been huge but I understand that," adds Jack. "People had become cheesed off with the way things were going. But our last few home games have seen more people attracted back by the football we are playing. In turn, the players feed off that."

If this fourth-round match prompts little discussion, wider issues could at least be addressed between the clubs in its aftermath.

Inverness have been vocal in their criticism of the Scottish Premier League's reconstruction plans; Jack is angered that his club and others like it haven't at least played a part in talks surrounding the wider reform of the game.

"We have never been consulted, just insulted," says the former Dunfermline striker of the plans, which would have a heavy impact on the SFL. "It is a disgrace.

"What is all the reconstruction for? To help our clubs in Europe? To help the national team? If they explain these things to us all, we can buy into it.

"It could have a massive impact on us. People are talking about regionalisation; we have just come out of the Highland League and committed ourselves to that, so why would we want to go back? I feel really strongly about it. Nobody has given us reasoning."

As for today's match itself, it is hardly a shock to hear Jack play down his side's chances of causing a shock. Inverness, it must be noted, have lost three matches in succession and appear to have particular troubles at home.

"We are massive underdogs," Elgin's manager says. "Inverness are the massive favourites to go through. But, you know, it's the Scottish Cup. Massive upsets have happened in the past and will continue to do so."