Playing at Hampden will be nothing new for Shane Sutherland, but the Peterhead forward is relishing the chance to finally perform in front of a packed crowd.
Sutherland played at the national stadium during his time with previous club Elgin City, when they came up against fellow League 2 side Queen’s Park who use the Glasgow venue as their home ground.
The 25-year-old was also part of the Blue Toon side that won 2-1 against Gus MacPherson’s men in November to reach Sunday’s Petrofac Cup final against Rangers.
Crowds of less than 500 are the norm at the Spiders’ league matches, while 917 people watched the semi-final against Peterhead, but this weekend promises to be a different story altogether.
The Ibrox club is set to take more than 35,000 supporters to the game, in addition to the Blue Toon’s allocation of 3,800.
Sutherland is relishing Sunday’s encounter, and says Jim McInally’s unfancied side has nothing to fear after an excellent recent run of form.
Sutherland said: “It’s a great achievement for the club to get to a final. I don’t think any of us have played at Hampden in a cup final before.
“It’s a totally different game for us, to play in front of 40,000 or so supporters.
“We are under no illusions, Rangers could play their best game of the season and win comfortably.
“But we go into the game under no real pressure. We know that if we play at 100% and Rangers have an off day we can cause them problems.
“We are massive underdogs and the crowd will be against us. We played them at Ibrox earlier in the season and they beat us 3-0, and they’ll be looking to do that again.
“Under Mark Warburton I’ve no doubt they’ll be switched on for the game, but if they were to take us lightly, we are a team that went 19 games unbeaten. At any level that is some achievement.”
Sutherland is pleased with his own form going into Sunday’s final, and the former Caley Thistle attacker added: “I started all right this season, but I then had a blip, when my performances were not good enough and I found myself on the bench. I worked hard to get back into the team, and I am back in at the moment.
“The goals have also started to come back since December and January, so I just need to keep my head down and keep working hard for the team.”