Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Wick Academy’s Pat Miller says he’ll ‘get the brandy bottle out’ if Scorries reach fourth round of Scottish Cup

Wick Academy chairman Pat Miller is looking forward to their Scottish Cup clash against Falkirk.
Wick Academy chairman Pat Miller is looking forward to their Scottish Cup clash against Falkirk.

Wick Academy chairman Pat Miller would love to be planning a historic celebration come 5pm on Saturday.

The Scorries face Falkirk at Harmsworth Park in the third round of the Scottish Cup.

Although the Caithness outfit will be underdogs against full-time, League One opposition, club chief Miller is daring to dream.

Wick have never reached round four of the Scottish Cup, and Miller said: “I live for the day when you get a cup upset.

“If we could do it everyone would be over the moon.

“I might go back on the drink if we were to get through – since my heart attack last year I don’t drink as much.

“However, if we were to get a win on Saturday, I think I’d have to get the brandy bottle out.

“We’d have to organise some kind of celebration for the players and staff, because it would be making history – which is always good and is always worth marking.

“You do have the slight worry that because they’re full-time they might overrun us.

“But the cup throws up some strange results at times and we’re hoping conditions might favour us.”

Extra measures in place to deal with crowd

Wick have beaten Lochee United and Benburb to reach this stage and a bumper four-figure crowd are expected to cram into Harmsworth Park.

With Academy sitting 10th in the Breedon Highland League, Miller admits their cup run has been the highlight of the season – although preparing for a game of this magnitude has presented extra challenges for the volunteers who run the club.

Miller, 70, added: “This run has been the highlight of the season, particularly because we’ve had quite an up and down season.

“Having three home games has also been a real bonus and unheard of really – usually we end up in the south of Scotland somewhere.

“A lot of people have shown an interest and said they’ll be coming, so we’re expecting a crowd of more than 1,000.

“Falkirk are expecting to take about 500 fans up with them.

“Dealing with that increased number is quite a challenge so we’re getting extra stewarding and we’ve been working on a slicker system for getting people in through the gate.

“We thought about making it a ticketed match, but with time restrictions that was going to be a challenge so we’ve just gone for pay at the gate.

“We’re taking extra toilets in and we’re looking at extra catering because our tea hut might struggle to cope with all the people looking for a pie and a coffee.

“It’s taken quite a bit of planning, but it’s good planning to be doing.

“We want to be involved in games like this more often and have days like Saturday more often.”

Conversation