Brechin impressive as they march on in Scottish Cup
I made the short trip on Tuesday to take in the match of our Scottish Cup conquerors .
I have a couple of friends at Queens in Ryan McGuffie and Colin McMenamin and I must admit to telling them I didn't anticipate them having too many problems in seeing off the Second Division side.
This wasn't meant with any disrespect towards the team that defeated us only last week but I honestly didn't see enough from them in those two cup matches to think that they would worry Queens too much. How wrong was I?
It's no exaggeration that Brechin could and should have had the game wrapped up in the first half hour as they simply brushed Queens aside.
Although it's a regular friendly fixture between Annan and Queens I don't often get the chance to see them in competitive action. For that reason it's difficult for me to say how much their own performance affected the result.
Queens looked to me to be very poor but credit to Brechin because they were excellent.
Who will get their hands on the Scottish Cup this year?
Prior to the match, me and my mate Proudy, said that Queens had a great chance of another decent cup run similar to a couple of years ago,
Perhaps that was part of the problem. The players might have looked at the draw and thought they were already in the quarter-finals. There's no doubt that happens in the mindset of players and they look further than the game in front of them sometimes.
So if you ever hear me say we're taking it one game at a time you have my permission to correct me!
The way the draw for the next round has worked out there is a great opportunity for someone outside the Old Firm to get their name on the famous trophy or at least reach the final of the competition.
With Rangers and Celtic coming out of the hat against each other it's opened up nicely and it's great to see plenty of SFL clubs still there, especially from the Third Division.
I'm sure Brechin are happy with their draw but if East Stirlingshire can get past Buckie Thistle (which won't be easy) they'll fancy their chances at home as well and that's them in the last eight.
Hopefully for both their sakes they have their eye on the game in hand to avoid the same fate as Queen of the South.
The players and staff down the road at Annan had another blank Saturday. Our friendly up at Livingston fell foul of the weather and it also meant a replacement training session was called off at the last minute due to the severe conditions.
I'm not too sure what we're going to face next in terms of the weather. The rain was absolutely belting it down during Monday's training session and the park was completely waterlogged so we'll be hoping for a change in forecast in order to get our home match against Elgin played this weekend.
At the last check I reckoned we had 24 fixtures still to play with only 18 available Saturday's if the league is to finish on schedule.
That's provided there are no more postponements and remembering that we haven't really hit the worst of the winter months.
The club have recently arranged to play the postponed match with Albion Rovers on 25 January, so that still leaves five fixtures to arrange along with three or four reserve games that remain outstanding. This could really be the time that we have to wrap our players in cotton wool.
Hi there, I'm Chris Jardine, midfielder with Scottish Third Division side Annan Athletic. I hope, throughout the season, I can give you a good insight into life at the newest Scottish League club and maybe even a few laughs along the way.
Comment number 1.
At 14th Jan 2011, ArticArab wrote:Hi Chris,
"The way the draw for the next round has worked out there is a great opportunity for someone outside the Old Firm to get their name on the famous trophy or at least reach the final of the competition."
There are pently of names outside of the old firm on the cup. Are you forgetting who the defending cup champions are? You're making it sound as if it is a rare occurence for teams outside of the old firm to be in the final but last year neither of the old firm contested the final.
Personally I hope it will be United two years in a row but I'm slightly bias there.
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Comment number 2.
At 15th Jan 2011, Kickback wrote:Very poor blog this week Chris.
You also fail to mention the form team in Scotland were knocked out the other night!
Do you even research stuff before you type?
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