The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
No place like home for Jags
Play-off: Passionate crowd can lift Highland champions in first SPFL leg
Buckie Thistle manager Graeme Stewart believes a passionate Victoria Park crowd could be key to SPFL play-off success against East Kilbride on Saturday.
The Highland League champions must regroup and refocus on earning the step up to senior football after the title party following Saturday’s 9-0 home win against Strathspey Thistle.
And Stewart reckons there can be no place like home if his club is to become the first to step up from the Highland League to League 2 following defeats for former champions Brora Rangers and Cove Rangers.
Stewart said: “We get the biggest crowds in the Highland League and that certainly gives us a bit of an advantage, especially at home, you could see what the crowd was like on Saturday against Strathspey.”
Stewart has had East Kilbride watched and will be able use information gleaned from a number of sources, including a Highland League winning manager. He said: “Former Cove manager Kevin Tindal has
“I am confident we will score on Saturday and then down there a week later”
helped me out with some information on East Kilbride as one of his friends who manages a team in the Lowland League, will be giving me reports on them.
“We will train as normal this week and brief the players on East Kilbride.
“The important thing for us is to still be in the tie ahead of the second leg down there a week on Saturday. I am confident we will score on Saturday and then down there in the second leg. If we can defend as well as we have done in the last six or seven games then hopefully we can go down there with some sort of lead.” East Kilbride manager Martin Lauchlan reckons his side will be underdogs against Highland League champions Buckie Thistle in the SPFL play-offs.
Kilby won the title last month and head the 16-team table on 75 points, seven clear of second-placed East Stirling, but Lauchlan claims Buckie will be the bookmakers’ choice to progress to a two-legged play-off final against League 2’s worst club.
Lauchlan said: “We’ve been favourites in every game this season, but we’re going to go in as the underdogs at Buckie because of the amount of goals they have scored, and how they have finished the season.
“We finished three or four weeks ago when we won the championship, while Buckie have gone to the very death to win it, they've been playing competitively right until the very last game so it’s going to be a tough game for us.”
Lauchlan believes winning the title early may give his side an advantage as he has been able to rest players and added: “In the last couple of weeks we’ve been able to work on the players’ fitness. They've gone through a strict training regime going into these matches and I'm sure both will be great occasions and a game both clubs will really look forward to.
“There will be mutual respect. To win any championship takes a lot of mental strength and a lot of time and sacrifice for part-time players, so I think it’s going to be an extremely good game on Saturday.”
Lauchlan has overseen a transformation in East Kilbride’s fortunes and said: “It’s a good club, and a very ambitious one. I took over little more than a year ago and we finished fifth in the table last season.
“To win the league within a year has been great for myself and everybody at the club. East Kilbride is a club which wants to progress, we’re still very young in terms of how long we’ve been going, we were only founded in 2010, but we definitely want to progress.”