William Hill Scottish Cup

Forfar Athletic enter the William Hill Scottish Cup at the third round stage with ties due to be played on Saturday, November 24th and the draw will be made at Hampden Park this Saturday afternoon at 5.45p.m.

It will be streamed live on Scottish Football Association social media channels.

At that stage of the competition, the eventual winners of the sixteen second round ties scheduled for this Saturday will be joined by all ten clubs from the Ladbrokes League 1 and six clubs from the Championship.   Those six are the two clubs promoted in May of last year Ayr United and Alloa Athletic and the teams who finished in 5th/8th position in last term’s Championship, namely Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Queen of the South, Morton and Falkirk.

There are certainly some interesting second round ties on Saturday first, not the least the visit of junior giants Auchinleck Talbot who knocked West End out of the Junior Cup a few weeks back to Highland League leaders Cove Rangers.   The other ‘heavyweight’ clashes involving non-SPFL sides would on paper appear to be Beith Juniors home tie with Linlithgow Rose down in Ayrshire and the meeting of Lowland League top of the table rivals East Kilbride currently under the temporary stewardship of Stuart Malcolm and Spartans at K Park.

There are also two all Ladbrokes League 2 clashes with Cowdenbeath at home to Clyde while Queens Park head for Forthbank to meet Stirling Albion.   

Annan Athletic are the only League 2 side due to play a non-league side away, their opponents improving Rothes up in ‘whisky country’, although Albion Rovers will no doubt have some qualms about their home tie with Formartine United, conquerors of the ‘Loons’ in round three last season.

Another intriguing tie is the visit of the new ‘kids on the block’ in the Lowland League ambitious Kelty Hearts to Peterhead.