The Brox happy to play at home
Tough cup draw sees them take on The Shire
Broxburn Athletic manager Brian McNaughton says he’s ‘excited’ by the prospect of taking on East Stirling in the first round of the Scottish Cup.
The Brox were drawn at home to the Lowland League title challengers after they booked their place thanks to a 1-0 away win at Girvan in the second preliminary round.
Zander Miller’s strike early in the first half is all that separated the sides and the boss admits they were far from their best on the Ayrshire coast.
Hesaid: “It will be a tough challenge against East Stirling but we’re excited. When you look at all the teams who were in the draw, we’ve been given one of the toughest games. East Stirling are a top-four Lowland League club and a very good side.
“But what you always ask for in a cup draw is a home tie and that’s what we’ve got so you have to be happy. We’ll need to prepare properly and to be at our best to beat them.
“The players need to be completely switched on all the time because they will have players who can hurt us.”
He added: “We certainly deserved to win but we didn’t play very well at all if I’m honest. We had a decent 20 minutes or so and got the goal but we were solid rather than good.
“We will certainly not be getting through to the second round if we play like that against East Stirling.
“We have been playing very well for the most part this season but not against Girvan on Saturday. However, you’d always take a win in a cup game no matter how it comes about.
“The positives are that we’re through but the performance was a negative.”
The Brox are in the Scottish Cup for the first time in their history and defeated Tynecastle in the first preliminary round prior to taking on Girvan.
The Albyn Park side, who moved from the Junior ranks last year to join the East of Scotland, got their SFA licence in the summer which gave them a place in the Scottish Cup and McNaughton says he’s delighted that those on the park have done their bit to help out the club following the efforts of those off the park.
He said: “It’s a reward for all the people who put in the hard work for years to get the club to the stage where we could get a licence and be in this competition.
“They spent a lot of money on improving every aspect of the club and there’s good financial rewards for being in the first round so the coaching staff and the players are all really delighted that the football on the park could give them a real reward.
“It was historic just being in the preliminary rounds but it’s a real boost to the club for us to be at this stage of the competition.”