Scottish Cup dream draw and cash windfall is the incentive as Elgin City meet Kelty Hearts for third time this season

Scottish Cup prestige and financial reward are two big incentives for Elgin City to go for glory this weekend.

Borough Briggs plays host to a battle of the divisional pace setters, with League 2 leaders City taking on a Kelty Hearts side currently at the summit of League 1.

The sides will meet in all three cup competitions this season - this is their third clash - and Elgin manager Allan Hale sees it as an opportunity for his club to better themselves on two fronts.

Reaching the fourth round of the Scottish Cup would earn the Black and Whites more plaudits in an already progressive campaign, and bring in the potential of a big pay day.

“There’s two angles to Saturday’s game,” said Hale.

“First of all there’s the football side which for us is the most important, for the players to know that if they win, the carrot is that there may be an opportunity waiting for them to experience a game and an occasion that they don’t often get to experience in their careers.

“Then you’ve got the financial incentive as well, the rewards of progressing through the tie.”

City centre back Jack Murray will know all about the possibilities which are created by reaching the last 32 of the competition and joining the top Premiership teams in the draw.

He was part of the Buckie Thistle side that reached round four last season and landed the dream draw of a visit to Celtic, and the chance to play in front of a 40,000 crowd at the home of the champions.

Being paired with a big fish in the tournament could earn City a huge windfall, but Hale knows there’s a lot of work to be done on Saturday for his team to maintain their interest in the cup.

They needed six penalty saves from on-loan Kilmarnock keeper Aidan Glavin to overcome fellow-League 2 side Clyde in the last round, with Elgin winning a marathon 24-kick shootout.

That victory earned them another home tie against familiar opponents.

Kelty are certain to provide tougher opposition, with the Fifers on great form this season, bossed by player manager Michael Tidser and buoyed by the goals of Ross Cunningham and on-loan front man Scott Williamson, who scored on his last Borough Briggs visit.

An Elgin side who played for an hour with ten men following Jake Dolzanski’s red card held Kelty to a 1-1 draw in the Premier Sports Cup in July, and won the penalty shoot-out for a bonus point.

Kelty gained revenge by ousting City from the SPFL Trust Trophy with a 3-1 victory in Fife in September.

“We know a lot about Kelty having played them twice already, once at home and once away,” Hale added.

“We know what they are going to be all about in terms of their set-up. There’s that familiarity which on one hand is a good thing because you are able to prepare the team as well as you can based on what we know.

“But we know it’s going to be tough. They’ve got so many good players in their team, particularly from middle to front. They are very strong, very sharp and they’ve got players that are scoring goals and really confident and they are on a great run themselves and at the top of League 1, which is probably the most competitive that there’s been at that level in years.”

Both teams had a blank Saturday last weekend due to the wintry weather - City’s home league clash with Clyde was called off on Friday - and training sessions were also disrupted.

Hale has little in the way of updated news to report on his team’s injury crisis, as he said midfielder Lewis Hyde is the only one of his seven casualties to be available for action, albeit with limited minutes.

“We are glad that we can hopefully get into a full week of proper preparation that won’t be disrupted by the weather like last week and hopefully we’ve got a game to look forward to.

“Last week we were heavily disrupted and only got a session in on the Tuesday, and the Aberdeen boys couldn’t make it due to the road being blocked in Huntly.

“Thursday and Saturday both had to be cancelled due to snowbound pitches and unavailability and travel conditions.

“We will get the group together on Tuesday and Thursday and we will go with as strong a squad as we’ve possibly got at this stage.

“The injury situation isn’t going to change on a week-by-week basis. The injuries we have are more longer term and there’s not much change.

“It gets another week into Lewis Hyde who is nearer to fitness but other than that it is a case of as-we-were. He is at the point where he is into full training now and it’s literally a case of building up his match minutes.”

Goalkeeper Tom McHale, captain Matthew Cooper, centre backs Jake Dolzanski and Ross Draper and midfielders Ryan MacLeman and Rory MacEwan could all be out for the rest of the year.