Club president Garry Farquhar hopes Saturday will be a memorable day for Buckie Thistle as they play their equivalent of a European tie.
Farquhar hopes the clash – a break from Breedon Highland League business – will appeal to Buckie’s supporters.
He said: “We’re not sure how many supporters Linfield might take over from Belfast, but with Northern Ireland being at home on Saturday that could have an impact.
“We’ll wait and see how that pans out, but from a Buckie perspective, we’re expecting a good home support.
“It’s a bit of the unknown for us in terms of what we’ll be facing, hopefully, that appeals to the fans.
“It will be a big day for the club – I suppose you could say it’s our equivalent of a European tie.
“It’s something a bit different for us and not like our usual league games.”
Tricky encounter
Linfield were playing in European competition earlier this season and Farquhar expects a difficult afternoon against them.
He added: “We don’t know too much about them, but we know they’ll be a good side.
“Graeme Stewart (Buckie’s manager) has been finding out about them and hopefully his father-in-law, Jimmy Nicholl (Northern Ireland’s assistant manager), will be able to give him some information.
“They were playing in European competition this season so they’re clearly a good team that we’ll need to treat with respect.”
With the tie taking place during an international break Buckie are allowed to live stream the game online, despite it being a Saturday 3pm kick-off.
Farquhar said: “It’s good we’ve got the streaming option available to us.
“The system we put in (during lockdown) cost about £4,000 and it’s covered itself already so anything we’re taking in now is extra revenue for the club.
“For this cup game Linfield will be due half of it, but hopefully some of their supporters that can’t attend might tune in.
“The money from the streaming is money you wouldn’t get through the gate so it’s a bonus.”
