BROTHERS Danny and Darren Handling could line up against each other for the first time in a special friendly.

Dunbar United, home of younger brother Darren, welcome Edinburgh City, featuring older brother Danny, to New Countess Park on Monday evening.

The two brothers are “best mates” and hope to be involved in the contest, which would see them share a pitch for the first time.

Danny, who turned 28 on Sunday, has been a regular part of the Ainslie Park side this season and scored in the Monday evening victory away to Forfar Athletic.

He spoke to Courier Sport the following day and said: “Any other occasion, I would not ask to play.

“It is probably not a game I need to have.

“Any other friendly I would not ask to play but my family have bought tickets.”

The two brothers began their careers with Hibernian before going on different paths.

Danny was named on the bench in the Easter Road side’s 2016 Scottish League Cup final defeat to Ross County before going on to play for Raith Rovers and Dumbarton, then joining Edinburgh City in 2018.

Darren, 25, would go on to join Haddington and Musselburgh before making the switch to the Seasiders in the summer of 2015.

Danny said: “We are best mates – we are in the same friends group.

“He is two years younger than me and I have got my own friends but as soon as he turned 18 he came out into the pubs and has been part of the group ever since.

“I speak to him every day and he has got a daughter and I see her every week.

“I see him once or twice a week and we are really close.”

Earlier this season, the two brothers were just 90 minutes away from facing each other in a competitive match.

Dunbar United enjoyed an impressive debut in the Scottish Cup and had already knocked out Broxburn Athletic and Camelon to secure a tie with Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale.

The first match ended in stalemate and the draw for the third round offered the victors a home tie with Edinburgh City.

Darren played in both contests and Danny attended the replay at Ainslie Park, where it was the home side who won 2-1 to end the chances of the brothers facing off against one another.

Darren was also looking forward to tonight’s (Monday) game, which kicks off at 7.45pm, and said: “[The Scottish Cup defeat] was very disappointing for me, to be fair.

“I think the whole build-up to that game, my focus was to win and get to the next round.

“I had one eye on the next round already and looking to play against my brother.

“We conceded in the first game in the last couple of minutes, which took it to a replay.

“We then got a man sent off, which killed us off.”

Danny told Courier Sport the brothers were regularly playing football together as children.

He said: “We are not twins but my mum and dad got us kitted out in the same strips.

“We had so many strips and were obsessed with football.

“When he first signed for Hibs, we had lots of photographs done by a professional photographer of us in our training kits on the Knox Academy playing fields.

“We got lots of photographs done there and we have been totally obsessed with football.

“In our front garden, we had a tiny wee fence and we used to use it as a goal.

“One of us would be in goal and the other firing balls into the goalkeeper.

“It was like goalkeeper training but strangely enough neither of us ended up a goalkeeper!”