Forget the Super Bowl, Easter Road is the place to be

Having overcome Banks O'Dee in the highly charged local derby – played in the worst of our Scottish weather – the match was a real "clichville" game of two halves with the wind the winner over football.

The next brought up the first twist of fate with a home game against East Fife, where I used to play and where my assistant Jim Moffat was manager. The game itself was a far better spectacle for football with our boys controlling large chunks of the game before eventually seeing off a resilient Fife team.

The fourth round was always going to be tough and the fact that Hibs were there for the winners just added that extra spice for an already-confident Edinburgh City team who seemed to have their heart set on the romantic tie which would now be achievable for the winners. There was a demand for this round to have replays or cancelled games played on Mondays or alternatively Wednesdays if Monday was postponed, giving us another hurdle which had to be overcome due to the resources available at a part-time club compared to full-time outfits.

Thankfully, after a ten-minute blip towards half-time at Meadowbank Stadium, we reassessed and dominated the second half with Daryl Nicol providing his take on the George Best goal against Northampton, running half the length of the pitch to coolly put the tie beyond Edinburgh City and providing a trip down memory lane for yours truly.

I will take my place in the dug-out rather than try to roll back the years on the pitch, but the chance to take my team to Easter Road, where I played for five seasons in the early 1990s, is great for the club, in terms of reaching the last 16 of a major trophy and being the last remaining team from the Third Division. Then there are the financial aspects of drawing a big Premier League team away from home, which is a timely windfall because most clubs in the lower divisions have not played any home games for all of December and January due to our climate.

Surely if there was a time to sanction summer football, then it is now. With part-time football teams relying upon handouts from the Scottish Football League to keep their heads above water, it would be more beneficial to have a league that runs from March until October when games have a better chance of being played and better conditions attract more spectators to come along and enjoy a game.

Scotland does not have the infrastructure or the finance outside the top SPL clubs to facilitate clubs training and playing facilities, which has been emphasised during the recent bad weather which saw Toryglen in Glasgow becoming the most used indoor football park for just about every team in Glasgow. How can we go on about player development when we don't have enough of such facilities in the other major cities?

Trying to get players in shape by training on the beach is a tall order, and we did so many spinning sessions on the gym bikes recently that the players were asking when Lance would be signing.

But back to today, where the chance for Montrose to play against the form team in Scotland means we face a major challenge.

Any team, let alone the bottom team in the Scottish Football League, will struggle to contain the current attacking crop of Hibs players, but for me Liam Miller has been the vital ingredient in the mix.

But be sure about one thing – these Montrose lads are no quitters and always give 100 per cent. Without doubt some players will play better than others, but we will see who is good enough on the big stage, who can actually handle the pressure and go back up the leagues through performing for Montrose on their big day out.