It’s seven and hell for Wishaw after cup tie KO

Wishaw Juniors were left kicking their heels yet again after their seventh attempt to find a winner in their Scottish Junior Cup tie with Downfield was called off.

Their third- round replay on Saturday failed an early morning inspection after heavy rainfall left the Beltane pitch waterlogged.

Manager John Brogan couldn’t hide his frustration that his side couldn’t get the game on after almost two months of waiting.

He said: “The inspection found the pitch too soft to be safe.

“That was the seventh attempt to get this tie settled after we drew the first leg at their place.

“We haven’t had a game since two weeks before Christmas, so it’s frustrating.

“The weather is like that and we’ll just take the next game when it comes. “We don’t want to run behind too many games, though, or it can get hectic fitting them all in.” With the top tier of Scottish football enjoying a winter break, Brogan (left) insisted the call-offs have effectively given his side the chance to rest up, but the Wishaw boss is not an advocate of summer football as he believes teams in the lower leagues would struggle to pull a side together.

He said: “A lot of people talk about a move to summer football — and obviously it’s nice to play when the weather’s better.

“But that is when a lot of our players are away on holiday. We could end up four or five players down and then we could really be snookered with numbers.

“We almost get a full break as it is with these cancellations anyway. We’ve been training hard and, hopefully, the game on Saturday will go ahead.”

Juniors will hope it’s eighth time lucky on Saturday with Downfield set to return for the cup replay. Kick off is 1.30pm at The Beltane.