Ally MacDonald wants to pick up his first trophy as Brora Rangers manager and meet the club’s expectation for success.
The Cattachs face Fraserburgh at Inverurie’s Harlaw Park on Sunday in the final of the GPH Builders Merchants Highland League Cup.
MacDonald became player-manager at Dudgeon Park in February and is keen to continue the success of his predecessors.
In the last decade Brora have won 12 trophies – the Breedon Highland League four times, the Highland League Cup twice and the North of Scotland Cup on six occasions.
Asked about what it would mean to get his hands on silverware as manager, MacDonald said: “It would be brilliant.
“As a player or a manager you want to be successful.
“As a Brora manager winning trophies is what’s expected of you and it would mean a lot to win it.
“That’s what I want to do, but collectively at the club we’d want to do that anyway regardless of who the manager is.
“The thing with management really is that when things are going well it’s good players and when it’s not going so well it’s bad management.
“With the squad we’ve got and the competition that’s there with players on the bench who maybe aren’t used to being there, it means there will always be questions asked about who’s playing.
“Everyone has different opinions when it comes to selecting a team. But we’ll try to pick what we feel is the best team for the game.
“There is pressure on me to pick the right team. There is an expectation to win things and people will be disappointed if we don’t so it would be nice to get over the line and win a trophy.”
Serial winners in silverware battle
While Brora are used to being successful, Fraserburgh have also experienced the winning feeling plenty in recent times.
In the last 12 seasons the Broch have won 11 trophies with eight of those successes coming in the eight-and-a-half years since Mark Cowie was appointed manager.
MacDonald believes the past success of both clubs only adds to the intrigue of this final.
Neither side is in the habit of losing finals either. In the last 10 seasons Brora have lost one final out of nine with Fraserburgh defeated in only two of 10 finals.
MacDonald added: “If you look back both clubs have a good record in finals. Rothes in the North of Scotland Cup final a couple of seasons ago is the only final we’ve lost in recent years.
“And Fraserburgh have a similar record, when they’ve got to finals they don’t often lose.
“I think that adds to this final because it’s two teams with good records who are serial winners when it comes to these games and we know we’ll need to be at it.
“It will be a very difficult game, Fraserburgh are a full of top players and they’ve shown they’re consistent winners.”
