Immediate Strain for Darvel boss is who to pick versus Petershill...
out of the Junior game since resigning his Ardrossan Winton Rovers post in early 2016, insists that even a win in today’s Macron Scottish Junior Cup clash with higher-league Petershill will not rubberstamp the Ayrshire side’s status as the finished article.
Darvel will head for Sprinburn in fairly confident mood, as you might expect, but Strain is adamant a victory, even one against all the odds, cannot be seen as a constructive statement on where his club is going or wants to be.
He said: “I couldn’t ask for any more from the players than what they have given me in my two games charge.
“Steady, hard-working and comparatively young would best describe the group of players at the club, however that’s not to say we don’t have a smattering of top Junior talent running through our ranks.
“Dale Shirkie, for instance, played four first-team games for Motherwell in his younger days and there is a real quality to his game, even if he is somewhat hampered by work commitments that force him to miss a lot of training sessions.
“He only came back home on Friday after working away in all week and I have a decision to make on whether to throw him in at Petershill when he’s not had the best preparations – and the exact same selection dilemma hangs over Rikky Hanvey who is only arriving back this morning.
“Topping everything is a worry over the fitness of Jenks [Alan Jenkins], captain of Hurlford United in their Junior Cup Final defeat by Auchinleck last season ,and a player I would ideally want in my midfield when facing Petershill in their own backyard.
“Unfortunately , injury has prevented him featuring in my two games in charge.”