Wilkie hopes to lift Cup for Lochee – and finally feel like he deserves it

Lee Wilkie walked up the Hampden steps to lift the Scottish Cup in his Dundee United suit knowing the fit wasn’t quite right.

The ex-Terrors skipper was honoured to be invited up as guest of the team to collect the trophy after their 3- 0 win over Ross County in 2010.

But having retired weeks earlier due to injury he couldn’t shift the niggling feeling he didn’t belong there.

So he reckons if he lifts the Scottish Junior Cup in a Lochee United tracksuit it would be just as sweet if not sweeter.

He’s now just 180 minutes away from another cup final day, only this time as a coach, after the Superleague side set up a semi-final double-header last weekend.

Lochee prepared for the semi first-leg with Auchinleck in a fortnight with a 3-1 home win over Broxburn yesterday.

Grant Lawson’s opener and a double from Bryan Deasley did the damage after Scott Richards had levelled for Broxburn.

And Wilkie says lifting Lochee’s first Scottish Cup would be extra special.

He said: “It would be a bit different as well, almost like you’ve deserved it. It would have more meaning. Going up with the team was great but I was detached. It was special but I was a bit uncomfortable because you want to go up and feel you deserve to lift the cup.

“I didn’t in a way because I didn’t play. In my head, I was thinking, ‘I’ve not gone out there and won this.’

“But Peter Houston and the players were great to do that. I wasn’t going to throw their gesture back in their faces even if I felt slightly awkward.”

Lochee face arguably the toughest passage to the end-of-season showpiece

after being drawn on Thursday with 11-time winners Talbot.

Wilkie reckons the underdog status suits them – he’s just concerned he’ll have to come up with another pre-match quiz for the players after it worked a treat before their quarter-final win over Beith.

The 37-year- old, joined by his exTannadice coach Ray Farningham in George Shields’ Lochee backroom team, said: “This is going to be a tradition now.

“I’m going to do a quiz every f****** game now leading up to the Final. It took me about four hours!

“It was funny because I found an old photo of Ray when he had his moustache. I had it next to a Chuckle Brother asking: ‘ Which one’s the Chuckle Brother?’

“Ray hasn’t changed in the 20 years since he took me as a kid. He taught me so much when I was younger.

“I quite like to take a back seat and just watch him take training but he is always telling me to get involved.

“I’ve a lot of respect for him – just like I did as a boy at Dundee.”

And Wilkie admits he’s patient for his dugout debut having been at Thomson Park for three years now with a spell as Montrose No.2 in between.

The ex-defender, who’s also involved in coaching Dundee United’s Under-16s, added: “I had a couple of chances two or three years ago to push for something in management but I didn’t feel ready.

“Just now I’m happy doing what I’m doing and learning. But it’s something I would want to do. I am not one of those footballers who thinks because I played football I can suddenly go and start coaching because it’s totally different.”