DUNBAR United players have been urged to go and write themselves into the club’s history books.
The Seasiders are enjoying a second season in the Scottish Cup and a victory over the University of Stirling on Saturday would take them into the third round for the first time.
Kevin Haynes and his team have already knocked out two teams from the leagues above – Vale of Leithen, of the East of Scotland Football League Premier Division, and Clachnacuddin, from the Scottish Highland Football League – but face another tough task in taking on the students from the Lowland League.
Haynes said: “We were put out in the second round last season and if we were to progress and win on Saturday it would be the furthest the club has been in the competition. There is excitement in trying to beat last year’s record, although the task is mammoth.
“Already this year, every opposition we have faced have already played at a higher level in the standings of Scottish football.
“Last season, we only played teams at our own level; every time it was a team in our league.
“Progressively wise, we are better than what we did last year.
“We have knocked out two teams in the leagues above us and this is the hardest task we have faced over two seasons.
“I feel we probably are better when we are underdogs and that is what we are.
“Most people in the East Region of football will have us as underdogs and that suits us. There is no pressure and it is a free hit – can we go and cause an upset?”
Dunbar – East Lothian’s only remaining side in the competition – come into the game buoyed by a 4-1 win over Preston Athletic in the South Region Challenge Cup on Saturday.
The Pennypit side had taken three points in a league meeting between the two teams just a matter of weeks earlier. However, Haynes and his players have bounced back and went top of the First Division table with a 2-1 win over Lochore Welfare earlier this month.
Gregor Goldie, a regular goalscorer in the club’s under-20s team, had come off the bench to net the winner in front of his friends and family before being awarded man of the match.
Haynes joked there was no champagne on offer – simply a handshake. The manager said: “I think we had to peel the kid off the ceiling on the Saturday night.
“It is just evident that what I have tried to do since I came in, getting support, getting the under-20s in place.
“It has been lip service before but for us to go through with it, Pam Munro [club secretary], has been a huge driving force in this as well as I have.
“It is just evident that it is a system that can work.
“He is a 17-year-old, who has scored a lot of goals for the under-20s already, and I think he touched on 40 goals for the under-17s last year.
“For him to get to an age group and there not to be a progression from the under-17s in his local town and there not be a pathway to the first team is criminal.
“For him to feature a couple of times already this season, go on and play with no fear and score the winning goal – without sounding too over the top, it is fairytale stuff.
“He had his grandfather from Dumfries come up for the game and that is a memory his grandfather can take away.
“His mum and dad, all of them, can remember it.”
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