Ally would Love to shock Saints
Clyde ace targets first quarter final in 16 years
Ally Love insists Clyde’s focus is on St Johnstone and not the carrot of a potential Scottish Cup quarter-final with Rangers or Celtic.
The Bully Wee face a huge task on Saturday evening when they face the League Cup holders in Perth, with the victors guaranteed a glamour tie against one of the Old Firm in the last eight.
Love isn’t thinking too far ahead though as he knows the magnitude of the challenge facing the part-timers in the fourth round.
Clyde will go into the game having played three League One games in a week leading up to the clash and Love reckons it would be one of the greatestever cup shocks if the Bully Wee pulled it off.
Love, whose side last reached the quarters in 2005 against Celtic, said: “It’s a massive game.
“It’s a one-off game and we’ll go there with a gameplan to get a result.
“We know it will be very difficult because the odds are massively stacked against us. Not just because we are playing the League Cup holders and a Premiership team, but because of the short-period of time we are having to recover from our previous games.
“The past two weeks now we’ve been playing every two days, so it’s been difficult.
“To go against a full-time team when you are fresh is hard enough, never mind trying to do it off the back of three games in a short period of time.
“Regardless if it’s Rangers or Celtic in the next round, we’ll focus on St Johnstone.
“That’s our carrot at the moment, not Rangers and Celtic.
“We want to beat St Johnstone and that’s the main focus.
“That was our mindset when we played Ayr United in the last round. Let’s go win the game and see what happens.
“We fully deserved it and it was an incredible effort from the boys.
“To think with the past year, the pandemic, the stop-start season the lower league clubs have had, it’s a crazy thought that we are one game away from a Scottish Cup quarter-final.
“It would be massive for the club to get there.
“Boys trying to keep themselves fit and the games we’ve had in such a short space of time, it would be incredible for Clyde as a whole to get through.”
Saints are huge favourites given they hold the solitary piece of silverware handed out so far this season, in a 1-0 win over Livingston in the League Cup final.
The Bully Wee have been bombarded with fixtures since the lower leagues returned last month, but that hasn’t stopped them stunning Championship side Ayr in the last round and pulling off big wins in the league, including a 1-1 draw with Cove Rangers and a vital 3-0 win over bottom of the table Forfar last week.
Love knows lady luck will need to be on their side if they are to get the chance to cause another cup upset this weekend, but he insists they have the quality to punish Callum Davidson’s side if the Saints give them the opportunity.
He added: “When you are playing Premiership opposition, you will need to ride your luck for periods of the game, but we have good players in our team and we’ll certainly be a threat.
“I don’t think there’s many games where we don’t score, so if we can go there, keep it solid and work hard, then I’m sure we’ll get opportunities to score.
“All the pressure is on St Johnstone. “They need to come out and they’ll be expected to win. We’ll go there and enjoy it and hopefully get a result.”
Kick-off at McDiarmid Park is 5:30pm.