Brora Rangers manager Steven Mackay does not feel tonight’s Scottish Cup opponents Camelon Juniors will be disadvantaged by having to switch the tie to a neutral venue.
Tonight will be the fifth attempt at fulfilling the tie, which was originally abandoned after 45 minutes on Boxing Day due to the Carmuirs Park surface being unplayable.
The match has now been switched from Falkirk to the artificial surface at Westfield Park in nearby Denny, which is the home of East of Scotland First Division Conference A side Dunipace.
With the incentive of a home tie against Championship side Hearts in the second round on Saturday, Mackay is hopeful his side can benefit from a wider surface but feels the lack of crowd means Camelon are not losing out on any home advantage.
Mackay said: “It’s an all-weather pitch, so fingers crossed that will be sufficient and we will get the game to go ahead.
“Typically when you play at home you feel you have an advantage because you’ve got their fans, but obviously that’s not the case just now.
“I’m not sure if there will be much of an advantage, if there is it will be negligible. We are not reading too much into it.
“We are just happy it will be on a flat surface where we will be able to get the ball down and play.
“Both teams were unable to do that in the initial game because of the conditions, and their pitch is quite tight.
“This will allow us to put a bit more width into the game, so you could argue that’s an advantage for us to move the ball about and play our normal football.”
Mackay insists tonight’s opponents could have done nothing more to get the game played before tonight, adding: “It has been unfortunate, the weather has not been great. We tried our best in the initial game to play through the conditions, but it definitely was the right decision.
“It has been a bit painful having to train, prepare and then have the game called off on a number of occasions.
“These things are out of our control. There is nothing Camelon can do now, it’s just unfortunate their pitch took a bit of a beating on the Saturday we were down there. It was going to take a lot for it to recover.
“They have done the right thing in finding a more suitable venue, so hopefully we can get the game to go ahead.”
Brora will travel without attacker Paul Brindle who has an ankle injury, while Orkney-based defender John Pickles will not travel for tonight’s match, which will be played to a finish.
Mackay expects a difficult encounter against Camelon, who are fifth in the Lowland League at present.
He added: “It’s going to be a tight game. There was no complacency at our end since the game was called off.
“We have trained Monday, Wednesday and Saturday since. We have made sure we are prepared physically and mentally for the game.
“We had a wee snippet on Boxing Day of what they are like. They did fantastic to beat Deveronvale in the last round and they were really up for the game and they did cause us some problems. They came out sharp and put us under a bit of pressure.
“There’s now the added incentive of the Hearts tie in the background as well.
“There’s no question they will be highly motivated for this game. They will do everything they can to try and beat us.
“We need to be ready for that and I think we are.”
