Brora Rangers boss demands more of players ahead of Scottish Cup tie
Brora Rangers manager Steven Mackay is demanding improvement from his side ahead of this Saturday’s Scottish Cup clash against Cumnock Juniors.
The West of Scotland Premier Division outfit will make the journey north to Dudgeon Park this weekend for a first round tie.
Brora, though, are coming off the back of a surprising 3-2 defeat to Deveronvale in the Highland League last Saturday.
Ben Hermiston scored twice for Deveronvale inside the opening 20 minutes to put the Cattachs on the back foot, although Mackay’s men did pull one back after the restart through Colin Williamson.
Though that may have seemed like a route back into the contest, Deveronvale instead stretched their lead once again courtesy of Rogan Read just before the hour mark.
As the clock ticked down, it became apparent that the points would be remaining in Banff, but there was still time for a nice moment for Shane Sutherland, who returned to action after two and-a-half years out injured last Wednesday against Wick Academy.
Coming off the bench, the former Inverness Caledonian Thistle man would score his first goal for Brora in the 89th minute, albeit it proved nothing more than a consolation on the day.
Mackay was disappointed with his side’s performance overall in Banff, and says standards will need to be raised ahead of the challenge of Cumnock tomorrow.
“First of all, we deserved to lose the game (against Deveronvale),” Mackay told the club’s media after the game.
“Far too many players had an off day, and when that happens you’re not going to win games of football.
“Deveronvale worked harder than us. It’s so difficult to say that, because it’s not how I like my football teams to play.
“The basics of any team I have is hard work, but they worked harder than us and they deserved to win the game.”
“Going to any ground in the Highland League, you have to outwork the home team irrespective of who it is.
“We can’t pick and choose which games we want to turn up in.
“This has happened at Keith and now at Deveronvale, and no disrespect to those teams but with the squad of players we have at our disposal we should be winning these matches.
“Now we need to flush Deveronvale out of our system quickly, because Saturday is an important game for us.
“We certainly can’t play like we did last weekend. We’ve had a week to prepare, but Deveronvale was a sore one with the manner of the defeat.
“We have to dust ourselves down. We can’t sit and feel sorry for ourselves, we need to take it on the chin and regroup, and we will do that to come out fighting against Cumnock.”
Cumnock Juniors earned their spot in the first round proper with a 3-1 win over Creetown in the second preliminary round.
Last year they made it as far as the third round before losing to Broomhill, while Brora went one stage further before losing to Cove Rangers in extra time.
