William Hill Scottish Cup Third Round
Formartine away for ‘Loons’ as draw descends into farce yet again!
The draw for the third round of the William Hill Scottish Cup held at Links Park, Montrose last night descended not for the first time in recent years into a farce and surely the high ‘heid yins’ at the SFA will launch an investigation into the circumstances.
As the ‘Loons’ team coach left Hampden last evening the draw being streamed on the SFA’s You Tube Channel began and it paired Forfar Athletic with Lowland League side East Kibride at Station Park. No easy task but at least a home draw with the opportunity to net perhaps around three/four thousand pounds of much needed income through hospitality etc.
However some three minutes later that had all gone ‘up in smoke’ following an astonishing and previously undetected mix up between balls six and nine.
Former Station Park legend Archie Knox and former Montrose Chairman Derek Sim were drawing the balls out of the bowl seemingly to the naked eye totally unsupervised by any of the top men at the SFA or any of their high ranking staff.
The screen went blank with fifteen ties drawn, only for a re-draw to commence from tie one some five minutes later.
In that draw Jim Weir’s men have now been handed an away tie at Pitmedden against top Highland League side Formartine United.
Everything may have been executed following the mistake by the rules of the competition, but the top and bottom line is the mistake should not have been allowed to occur.
Some clubs will be delighted this morning others like ourselves extremely aggrieved at the loss of income, extra travel costs etc.
For example Cove Rangers were originally drawn at home to Airdrie, now amazingly they play them away from home. Brechin head for Buckie having lost out on a local derby clash with Arbroath, Montrose instead of welcoming Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale now entertain Championship high flyers Queen of the South, while the cracker of the lot involves Sutherland based Brora Rangers. Originally drawn at home to Queens Park they now face a 700 plus mile round trip to Stranraer!
On the other ‘side of the coin’ Queens now have a home tie with Dunfermline Athletic at Hampden.
The full REVISED DRAW IS
Airdrieonians v Cove Rangers
Arbroath v Berwick Rangers
Banks O’Dee v Ayr United
Buckie Thistle v Brechin City
Clyde v East Fife
Dumbarton v Elgin City
East Kilbride v Albion Rovers
Formartine United v Forfar Athletic
Livingston v Glenafton Athletic
Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale v St. Mirren
Montrose v Queen of the South
Peterhead v Raith Rovers
Queens Park v Dunfermline Athletic
Spartans v Fraserburgh
Stenhousemuir v Alloa Athletic
Stranraer v Brora Rangers
Ties are due to be played on 18th November
