TWO INTO WIN DOES GO
Cuikie’s Jack and Victor aim to ensure the joke’s on Jags
THEY’RE known as the Jack and Victor of Penicuik.
And co-boss Tony Begg says the entire town is Still Game for a Scottish Cup shock.
Firhill in the third round is the biggest stage Begg’s managerial career has taken him to.
So much so even his 75-yearold dad Harry has been down the local Tesco helping sell tickets for Saturday to make sure he has his audience.
Leading the town he went to school in, where his mum and dad still live, against Championship Partick Thistle only adds to the fairytale.
One unique in the fact that it has been spearheaded by two gaffers in the shape of Begg and ex-Forfar defender Kevin Milne.
Begg said: “Do you remember the sketch on Chewin’ the Fat where the two of them are in the dugout?
“One of them gets up and says something and the other one does the same thing.
“The picture of those two is the picture on our group chat with the players. They call us Jack and Victor.
“Kevin and I have known each other for many years –
BY ALAN ROBERTSON we get on great, we never fall out. The trick to it is we both see the game the same way. We want to play the same way and we dovetail really well together.
“People say, ‘Surely somebody must have the final decision if you disagree?’ But we’ve been working as co-managers since last October and we’ve not had that situation yet – we always find a solution.
“You need to compromise in a partnership and so far it has worked really well for us.”
Playing in the sixth tier of the pyramid, the East of Scotland side requested an extra 500 tickets for Firhill to take their allocation to 1500. The Midlothian town is likely to resemble a scene out of 28 Days Later when three o’clock comes with fans
heading through to Maryhill en masse. Begg said: “It actually feels like going to Hampden for a cup final with Hibs or Hearts.
“I went to high school in Penicuik. My mum and dad still live in Penicuik. So I know a lot of the supporters. I went to school with them or they’re neighbours.
“Guys who I went to school with who, when we’re not winning, will slaughter me as well.
“My dad is in Tesco selling scarves and tickets for the games. He lives in the town so he’s just doing his bit to help out.
“I have an affinity with the town which makes it all the more special for me.
“There is no expectation on the boys but they will all be desperate to give a good account of themselves and that’s all we can ask of them – that they go out there and they don’t have any regrets.”
Having made it through two preliminary rounds, a 5-1 win over Cumbernauld Colts delivered Cuikie’s first win in the Scottish Cup proper since 1890.
League Two Stenhousemuir were stunned in the last round in what has become a run no one around Penicuik Park has witnessed in their club’s lifetime. But Begg knows this stage well. A coach at Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale, he lapped up the romance of the Cup when thrashing Stirling Albion 5-3 in the third round back in 2017.
Heartbreak followed against St Mirren – then managed by Jack Ross, the man now in charge of Begg’s other club Hibs – when lashed 7-1.
He said: “It’s funny because inside the first five minutes we had a really good opportunity to go 1-0 up and I’m thinking, ‘Do you know what, this might actually be all right today’.
“Then you go in 7-0 down at half-time and everybody is just shell-shocked. But the boys regrouped really well and the final score was 7-1, so we actually won the second half 1-0.
“That cup run experience has been really valuable for this one. That was as a first-team coach whereas this is as a joint manager where the buck stops with me and Kevin – 100 per cent, this is our biggest game in charge.”
Begg was in the same group as Partick winger Joe Cardle when doing his UEFA A Licence.
And he visited Denmark alongside Jags supremo Gerry Britton to study youth player development with the SFA.
So there will be a few familiar faces at Firhill as Begg added: “It will be nice to see them before the game. And I’ll be hoping they won’t be wanting to speak to me after it.”