Washout worries haunt Whitehill's tie with Wick

Whitehill's Ferguson Park was declared unplayable because of a waterlogged surface by referee Mike Tumilty, a decision which Cavanagh totally agreed with.

"I was on the park at 3.00pm on the Friday afternoon and it was perfectly playable but there was too much of a deluge during the evening which left puddles all over the pitch by Saturday morning," explained Cavanagh.

"You can imagine the disappointment for the Wick players and officials who had travelled south on Friday and stayed overnight at a hotel in the Perth area.

"However, their disappointment was more than matched by ours. We have had problems in recent seasons with the drainage and remedial work was carried out during the summer but the amount of rain was just one of these things.

"Let's keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow and look on the positive side."

Cavanagh has watched Wick in action and knows that their away record this season has been abysmal with no wins or draws recorded on their Highland League travels.

"It could be to our advantage that Wick have to make this journey again," added Cavanagh, who has signed former Spartans and Dalkeith Thistle striker David Beattie before the registration deadline and is in contention for a place in the squad.

"David brings us experience up front and he is definitely another option," stressed Cavanagh. "He has been looking sharp in training and hopefully he can transfer that form on to the pitch.

"We also have Scott Gormley who has been leading the line well without converting his good play into goals and he probably thinks that he could have brought more to the table but all he needs is just to relax and get a wee break in front of goal. Daryl Devlin is getting fitter by the day and he has settled in surprisingly quickly after missing out on the pre-season.

"Every player in the squad is confident enough and it's the old adage about who turns up on the day.

"I know that Wick are young and fit and they will be as keen as us to get a result. One thing is for certain and that is we don't want to be getting a draw and having to travel up to Wick for a replay.

"What is essential is that we must start off on a better footing than we have been recently and impose ourselves without letting Wick score early in the game and then giving ourselves a mountain to climb."

Youssef Bejaoui, the Whitehill Welfare goalkeeper, is full of praise for his mentor and coach at Ferguson Park - Scott Cantley - although, according to Bejaoui, he never stops speaking about his performance for Whitehill against Celtic in 1996 when the Scottish Cup holders only won 3-0 and Cantley was the Man-of-the-Match.

"Scott gives both me and the other Whitehill goalkeeper, Scott Haldane, quality training every Monday and Wednesday although he keeps telling us about how good a goalkeeper he was and that neither of us are as good as he was!" smiled Bejaoui.

Bejaoui is pleased with his form after injuring his back earlier in the season and is looking forward to tomorrow.

"We were gutted last week when the game was postponed because we were all looking forward to it," added Bejaoui. "We've all had good training sessions this week and again we are looking forward to what is a winnable game.

"We obviously expect it to be a hard game because although Wick have not won away from home, this is a Scottish Cup tie and completely different from a league game.

"There have been some dodgy results so far in this season's Scottish Cup and we certainly don't want to be another one of these statistics."

Kick-off is at 3.00pm with admission prices 6.00 for adults and 3.00 for concessions.

"We don't want to be getting a draw and having to travel up to Wick for a replay"

Paul Cavanagh