Formartine United’s Stuart Smith is hoping they can take advantage of a unique situation to reach the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup final.
In their first competitive game of the season, the Pitmedden outfit face Buckie Thistle at North Lodge Park in the semi-final of the competition.
The tournament was carried over after not being completed last term and Smith hopes to make the most of the opportunity to reach a final at this early stage of the campaign.
The defender said: “It’s quite a unique situation really. You don’t expect to have a game where there’s so much riding on it so early in the season.
“Both teams realise the importance of it and it should make for a good game.
“At Formartine we’ve done OK in this competition over the years and it would be good to get to another final.
“To get into a final at this early stage of the season would be good and it would also be a good springboard for the rest of the season.
Changes made at United
Formartine were defeated in the last Aberdeenshire Cup final back in October 2019.
However, Paul Lawson’s side has changed significantly since then with Kevin Main, Craig McKeown, Michael Clark, Garry Wood and Conor Gethins all departing this summer.
Smith added: “I’ve been at Formartine for a while now and I’ve seen a lot of changes in my time there.
“Sometimes there have been more changes in others, but we’ve lost guys like Craig and Garry so in that respect it does feel a bit different.
“But it’s always the same at the start of the season regardless of what has gone on in the summer.
“You’re excited and everyone wants to come back and prove themselves and I’m sure that will be the same again this time.”
Jags want to have final say
Meanwhile, Buckie have striker Kyle MacLeod back in contention following Saturday’s quarter-final victory against Aberdeen.
The Jags’ last silverware was the Highland League in 2017 and they have reached only one cup final since.
Boss Graeme Stewart is determined to change that.
He said: “It’s a good chance to get to a cup final, but I keep saying to the players getting to cup finals isn’t enough we need to try to win them.
“When you’re at a team like Buckie, you should be getting to at least one final a season and challenging for the league.
“It’s been too long since we were in finals on a regular basis. We were in a final last year, but before that it had been four years.
“We want to make this a regular thing and the more semi-finals and finals we play in, the more confident we’ll get.
“It’s important that we get to a final and it’s important we actually win a trophy.
“Four years since winning something is too long for Buckie.
“In terms of fanbase, I think it’s the biggest club in the league and, in terms of everything else, it’s one of the biggest and we should be up there challenging.
“I think with the players we’ve got we can do that. We want to be up there challenging every season.
“But there are probably five other teams who will say the same, so it’s not that easy.
“Four years without winning something is too long for Buckie and hopefully we can put that right soon.”