East Kilbride boss Mick Kennedy says his fifth-tier side are targeting winning the SPFL Trust Trophy and insists he is not daunted by facing Ayr United in the quarter-finals next month.
Kilby stunned Championship side Airdrie in the last 16 to earn their place in the last eight and they now know Scott Brown’s Honest Men stand between them and a historic semi-final place in a game to be shown live on BBC Alba on November 12.
But Kennedy – who famously knocked Premiership Aberdeen out of the Scottish Cup with Darvel in 2023 – believes his Lowland League charges can go even further and become the first non-league side to lift the silverware in the competition’s history.
Kennedy said: “Our aspirations are to try and win the cup. As crazy as that sounds to some people, it sounds really rational and normal to me, but that’s just my mindset.
“I said to the players you need to be in it to win it, and we’ve got to believe we can.
“At some point you are going to come up against difficult opposition in the process and it just so happens it is the quarter-finals.
“I think, at this stage, you need to believe we are good enough to win the trophy and that means we need to put Ayr out – that’s the way I think about it.
“We were massive underdogs against Airdrie and did it and I’m sure we were underdogs as well when we beat Cove in the previous round.
“I remember when I was at Darvel we beat Montrose 5-1 in the Scottish Cup and then we obviously put Aberdeen out a couple of years ago. So I’ve been through this process many times and it is just about belief.
“We are at home and we are looking forward to the challenge. It will be a really good test for us and we aren’t daunted by it in the slightest.”
The sides have already met this season, with Ayr winning a pre-season friendly 4-2 at K-Park, and Brown has led his side to the summit of the Scottish Championship after an impressive start to the league campaign.
Kennedy feels, however, that didn’t tell the whole story against Brown’s boys.
He added: “We played them in a pre-season friendly. We gave away two goals from really bad individual errors but we were well in the game and at 2-2, we should have gone 3-2 up at one point, but then they got two late goals.
“I felt we had good control of the game and created good opportunities.
“Broony has gone in there and started really well this season, but we have to believe.
“It’ll be no different to what we did against Airdrie. We’ll try to impose ourselves and we won’t sit in.”
The draw has also been made for the SPFL Trust Trophy semi-finals.
If EK come through their next test, a trip to Hampden could be on the cards with Queen’s Park a possible opponent if the Spiders overcome Rangers B.
EK’s clash with Ayr will be shown on BBC Alba and kick-off for that one is 7.40pm. Kennedy added: “It’s a wee chance for the boys to showcase themselves, going on TV. It is always good to get that platform.”
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