Dutch midfielder Bjorn Wagenaar sees no reason why the Cattachs cannot transfer their Highland League panache into today’s Scottish Cup trip to Greenock Morton.
Brora have been on rampant goalscoring form in recent weeks, clocking up three seven-goal victories from their last five matches to claim top spot in the league.
Although Wagenaar accepts his side will have to show more pragmatism against their Championship opponents at Cappielow, he insists the Cattachs can approach the tie with belief they can cause an upset against David Hopkin’s men.
Wagenaar said: “For myself, it doesn’t make a difference if it’s a small game or a big game – I still want to perform well.
“When there are more people coming to watch the games you can get a bit more nervous, but I think we will be fine.
“It’s a really good test for us. Normally in the league we are favourites. Morton are the favourites for this game, but I think we have a good chance.
“We have performed well in the last few games. The pressure is always on, we want to win the games, but I think we need a different strategy.
“Normally we always put pressure on and give everything to get the ball.
“There will be moments in this game where we need to stay and wait for the moments to get the ball.
“This is a team that trains full-time, while we only train twice a week, but there are a lot of older guys in our side who have been playing for a lot of years.”
“We are hoping for a good adventure in this cup.”
Wagenaar hails from Zuitland, a suburb of Rotterdam, and spent part of his youth career on the books of Feyenoord before joining another of the city’s professional clubs Excelsior.
The 21-year-old was most recently with Dutch third-tier outfit Scheveningen, but opted to move to Scotland last summer after a contact carved out a route to the Highlands.
Wagenaar, who currently has a job as a factory worker at Cairngorm Windows, is keen to pursue the ambition of a full-time career in Scottish football, adding: “I was in the Netherlands, and playing for a club called Scheveningen in the third level in Holland. It’s almost full-time, we trained three times a week.
“I was not playing every game. I always told everybody when I was young I wanted to play in another country and see the world.
“There was a man coaching the third team, who told me his wife was living in Scotland and he could maybe give me a trial at a club.
“I went to Brora for a few weeks and they wanted to sign me.
“There is the chance to grow up and maybe make professional football over here, but if it doesn’t work maybe I can see more of the world, or Scotland for a few more years.
“I enjoy it here. It’s good to learn the language.”
