Marc Laird explains Edinburgh City's mindset ahead of Scottish Cup clash with Hamilton

League 2 side will not have an inferiority complex against Accies
Marc Laird and Edinburgh City have faced Premiership opposition already this season in St Mirren. Pic: SNSMarc Laird and Edinburgh City have faced Premiership opposition already this season in St Mirren. Pic: SNS
Marc Laird and Edinburgh City have faced Premiership opposition already this season in St Mirren. Pic: SNS

Bullish Marc Laird insists there will be no inferiority complex when Edinburgh City visit Premiership side Hamilton Accies in the Scottish Cup on Saturday.

The Capital outfit may be three divisions below their hosts, who are buoyed by wins over Hearts and Motherwell just before their winter break, but veteran midfielder is adamant his side will head to Lanarkshire fuelled by a belief that they are perfectly capable of pulling off an upset.

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“It’s always good to challenge yourself against players from a higher league and they’ve obviously had a couple of good results recently so it will be difficult, but our focus is on wining the game,” said Laird. “If you don’t have aspirations to win, you shouldn’t be playing football. We know it’s going to be a very difficult game and we respect the division they’re in and the fact they have good players, but at the end of the day we want to win the game. It’s the Scottish Cup - anything can happen. There are always upsets, so why can’t we cause an upset?”

Laird takes encouragement from the fact City’s squad is well stocked with players who have previously played full-time football and won’t be overawed by facing a top-flight side. “We’ve got a lot of boys who have played at a good level and played against teams at a higher level,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good players so we’ve got nothing to be frightened of. The manager will want us to play how we usually play - on the front foot and with a bit of tempo. We’re looking forward to it. The pressure is all on Hamilton to win. They’re three divisions above us so the pressure’s off in that regard but our manager wants and expects a performance from us regardless of who we’re playing. He’ll be drilling it into us and making sure we’re ready to go.”

City, second in League Two, have acquitted themselves well against full-time sides in recent seasons, most notably when winning 1-0 at home to Dunfermline in the Betfred Cup in July and drawing 1-1 at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup last season. “It’ll be one of the hardest ties we’ve had since I’ve been at Edinburgh City but we’ve had recent experience of playing teams of a similar standard,” said Laird. “It was very difficult when we faced Inverness last year. They were a good full-time team with good players and they beat us 6-1 in the replay. We also played well at St Mirren in the Betfred Cup in the summer so we know we can hold our won in these type of games.”