Formartine United manager Paul Lawson will take inspiration from Brora Rangers’ Scottish Cup success but believes the Dudgeon Park men’s heroics may have made life even tougher for his side this weekend.
The North Lodge Park men host two-time Scottish Cup winners Motherwell in the third round on Saturday.
Lawson’s side are one of three Highland League sides left in the competition with Hearts’ conquerors Brora hosting Stranraer, while Fraserburgh welcome Montrose.
After yesterday’s confirmation that the Highland League season won’t be restarted, Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie in Pitmedden would be Formartine’s last game of the campaign – unless they can follow Brora’s lead and stun Graeme Alexander’s Well.
Former Motherwell player Lawson said: “It is that little bit special for myself because it is against one of my old clubs but, most importantly, it is a great tie for the boys.
“It has been a tough year with everything that has happened so credit to them as they have looked after themselves and worked hard in training.
“A tie like this is a great reward.
“But it is not a game where we just want to turn up and look forward to facing Motherwell. We want to give a good account of ourselves and see what happens.
“It was great to get back to training and it was easy to see how much the boys were enjoying it.
“That was the added incentive of trying to get through against Annan Athletic in the last round so that we could give ourselves another game to look forward to.
“We managed to do that which was great.
“With the uncertainty there has been over the league, it has been great to have the Scottish Cup games.”
HIGHLIGHTS | Formartine United 1-1 Annan Athletic@FormartineUtd win 3-1 on penalties#ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/q15iRyZid1
— Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) March 24, 2021
Brora Rangers’ 2-1 victory against Championship leaders Hearts will go down as one of the biggest Scottish Cup shocks of all time, particularly as the Cattachs hadn’t played a competitive match for 10 weeks and had only five training sessions and one friendly as preparation.
Lawson believes his players will take confidence from seeing their Brora counterparts progress against a team with one of the biggest budgets in Scottish football.
But he also thinks the result will have given the Motherwell management team and players plenty of food for thought.
He said: “The biggest disappointment is the fact we won’t be able to have fans there on Saturday.
“We have a small but loyal support and it would have also been nice to get the Motherwell fans up to North Lodge Park.
“Motherwell will come and be professional.
“We have to take inspiration from what Brora Rangers did.
“Our players must have that belief.
“The older players will want to show they can still perform and the younger ones want to show what they can do.
“We want to give a good account of ourselves.
“The Brora result shows anything can happen but it might go the other way as Motherwell might take us a bit more seriously than they did.
“But if we play at the top of our game and Motherwell have an off day then you never know what can happen.”
Lawson, a member of the Ross County side that enjoyed a memorable run to the Scottish Cup final in 2010 while playing in the second tier, added: “For clubs at our level the aim is always to get a glamour away tie or get them to your own ground and get a good crowd.
“That has been taken away but it is still a big game for the club and a chance for the players to showcase what they can do.
“We have had some good ties over the last few years and good results against Forfar and Clyde.
“We felt we let ourselves down when we went to Partick Thistle (in a 4-0 loss in 2017). We didn’t play at all, which was disappointing.
“At Ross County we did so well to get to the cup final but we didn’t turn up on the day.
“From the players’ point of view we want to make sure we don’t let ourselves down.
“We have to show our confidence as well as showing Motherwell the respect they deserve.”
