Cup Previews

Regrettably the slight thaw in the weather conditions arrived too late to save Oban Saints scheduled trip to Port Glasgow last Saturday. A Friday afternoon pitch inspection found the grass park at Parklea Playing Fields to be frozen ruling out any chance of the Scottish Amateur Football League Jimmy Marshall Trophy second round match between hosts Port Glasgow Old Boy's Union and cup holders Saints going ahead. This second consecutive enforced lay-off is far from ideal preparation as Saints build up to the biggest two fixtures of the season so far. The lead up to the Christmas and New Year break sees the Scottish Amateur Cup and the West of Scotland Cup reach the fourth round stage and the draws in both major cup competitions have been particularly unkind to Saints.

East in the Scottish

First up is a trip to Edinburgh's West End this Saturday to face Salvesen of Lothian and Edinburgh Amateur Football Association's Lothian West Division. Playing their home matches at Forrester High School close to Sighthill Public Park, Salvesen are currently on a sixteen match winning streak in all competitions racking up seventy five goals in the process. Their impressive run has taken them to the fourth round of the Scottish Amateur Cup where they will face last season's beaten semi-finalists Oban Saints and also the last sixteen of the East of Scotland Cup where they have a home tie against Stirling and District Premier Division leaders Callander Thistle. Following a successful spell in the Sunday morning leagues Salvesen joined the Lothian and Edinburgh Saturday section in 2015 immediately winning promotion from the Edinburgh West Division to the Lothian West Division. Currently occupying second place three points behind Shotts Thistle, Salvesen have two games in hand over the league leaders whom they have already beaten in the league and knocked out of the Scottish Amateur Cup at the second round stage. Saints recent away form has been patchy to say the least and a marked improvement will be required if they are to successfully negotiate this substantial fourth round hurdle.

East Kilbride in the West

The task facing Saints in the fourth round of the West of Scotland is even more daunting where they travel to Ballerup Playing Fields to face Central Scottish Amateur Football League high fliers East Kilbride. With only one defeat in sixteen competitive fixtures East Kilbride are also in a rich vein of form which has them sitting currently in second place in the Central Scottish Amateur Football League Premier Division as "best of the rest" behind runaway leaders Colville Park. After taking the scalp of the mighty Colville Park in the Central Scottish Amateur Football League Bunrigh Trophy third round, East Kilbride suffered their only defeat of the season so far two weeks ago in the semi-finals of the same competition against the impressive Southside of Division 1A.

Saints and East Kilbride are old friends with the South Lanarkshire boys regular pre-season visitors to Oban. This years friendly on 30th July ended goal-less after ninety entertaining minutes in front of a healthy crowd at Glencruitten.

Like Saints, East Kilbride are also through to the fourth round of the Scottish Amateur Cup where they will face another of Saints great friends Greenock High School Former Pupils in what is sure to be one of the ties of the round. The same can also be said of Saints visit to East Kilbride in the West of Scotland Cup which would certainly not look out of place in the latter stages of the competition.  

In a bid to get some much need game time ahead of their two crunch fixtures Saints have arranged a friendly match this Wednesday against West of Scotland Amateur Football League Premier Division new boys South Lochaber Thistle. The match at Kinlochleven High School kicks off at 7pm and will hopefully work off some of the recent ring rust before the fixtures which will decide whether Saints can extend their involvement in the major cup competitions beyond the Christmas and New Year break.



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