Scottish Cup second round: Bo'ness buzzing over visit of Queen's Park

Cup fever has gripped the town of Bo'ness ahead of the junior side's Scottish Cup clash with ten-times winners Queen's Park.

United host the Irn-Bru Third Division side in tomorrow's second round and manager Willie Newbigging is as excited as the townsfolk.

"All the players, management team and committee have been gripped with this game," he admitted today.

"To pit your wits against a side packed with a history of Scottish Cup triumphs is what we play football for.

"To be honest, since the draw was made it's been very difficult keeping the players focussed on the other games.

"The whole town is the same. Everyone's talking about Queen's Park.

"We are very definitely the underdogs tomorrow but underdogs have their day and it's up to us to make sure we don't disgrace ourselves.

"It's a game we can win and we'll prepare a game plan just for that."

Queen's Park are one of the founder members of the Scottish Football Association. In 1867 a group of gentlemen met for the purpose of founding a football team, adopting the motto "Ludera Causa Ledendi: 'to play for the sake of playing.'

A decision was made then that the team would remain amateurs and, to this day, no Queen's Park player has ever received a wage for playing for the club.

The Spiders currently sit third bottom of the Third Division and, in Gardiner Speirs, have a manager who knows the Junior scene and will be expecting a tough encounter.

Junior teams were first invited into the Scottish Cup in season 2007-08 and it was Bo'ness' fierce rivals Linlithgow Rose who carried the torch that season. They fell at the fourth-round stage in an away clash with the eventual runners-up, Queen of the South.

Tomorrow, Bo'ness will have the advantage of a big vocal home support which will far outnumber the travelling fans and this could be a decisive factor in the outcome of the game.

Many observers feel Bo'ness, the current East Super League champions, have a real chance of making the next round and boss Newbigging admits beating the Spiders would be a massive achievement for his side.

He said: "What a scalp it would be for a club like Bo'ness! We have nothing to lose so we'll have a right good go at them. The expectations are for a crowd of around fifteen hundred or so and, if the weather's good, then it'll be a great day for the fans.

"It's amazing too when a big game like this comes along everyone declares themselves fit for the game!

"That gives me a good headache because the players who came in last week did a super job and it'll be tough to tell players they aren't playing. Plus, in this competition we are reduced to only five subs where as in junior circles we're allowed seven.

"We'll go out there tomorrow looking to give a good account of ourselves. We won't be intimidated by Queen's Park being a senior club and, fingers crossed, we hope everyone has a good time and a result to be proud of."