Rutherglen Glencairn co-boss Billy Ogilvie says they’re desperate to get to the ‘Champions League final of junior football’ as they head to Darvel in the Scottish Junior Cup third round.
Glencairn reached the final in 2023, only to lose 1-0 to Cumnock at Broadwood with a heart-breaking late strike from Findlay Frye.
Ogilvie is keen to reach the showpiece again, but knows they have a tough test in Ayrshire against the holders.
He said: “This is a big, big game in the national junior cup. Darvel, the holders, playing at their ground, so it’s going to be an almighty test.
“But these are the games that we want to play, this is why we want to get promotion – to play the likes of Darvel on a regular basis. We’re looking forward to it, and we’ll hopefully put away the chances that we missed on Saturday.
“This is a good marker to where we are. This will give us a wee gauge.
“Cowdenbeath was a gauge in the big Scottish Cup, but this will give us an idea, in terms of junior teams, where we are. Let’s see where we are, against these sides.
“Getting to the final was absolutely great, a couple of years ago, and fair play to Joe Pryce, my co-boss, who called it when we were in the final, that it’s the ‘Champions League of junior football final’ and it really is.
“We want to get back there, it was great being there, a great occasion and we narrowly lost to Cumnock.
“Hopefully we can get back there again, but we can’t look any further than Saturday.”
Pryce last week asked Ogilvie to become co-manager, and the former East Kilbride boss was delighted with the opportunity.
He said: “I’m delighted. The manager has asked me to step up from assistant and become co-manager with him, and that’s probably what we’ve been doing for a couple of seasons, now.
“But I was really delighted with that, it’s awfully nice of him, and it’s nice to be appreciated.
“We’ve bounced ideas off of each other, with Joe having the last word, but we have a good relationship and it’s nice to have that become official.
“We have a look at it, see how it unfolds, do we need to tweak it – all the usual jargon that you hear in football!”
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