Penicuik Athletic hope planning pays off when they face Partick Thistle in Scottish Cup

Penicuik's players celebrate the win over Stenhousemuir in the previous round. Pic: TSPL

Penicuik Athletic co-boss Kevin Milne has backed his players to push Partick Thistle all the way in the Scottish Cup as over 1200 Cuikie supporters prepare to get behind them in Glasgow on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).

Songs have been written by the army of fans making the journey along the M8 to support their heroes, while the Midlothian town has been decked out in white and blue.

Competing against a Championship club away in the third round of Scotland’s premier cup competition means this will be the biggest match for many of Milne and co-manager Tony Begg’s squad.

Milne has urged his players to just go and enjoy the 90 minutes - but revealed they also have a secret plan which they hope can tumble Partick.

”All the boys are buzzing,” said Milne. “There is no nerves going into this game. It is just pure excitement, and that’s the way I would want it to be because ultimately there is no expectation for us to go and win so that pressure comes right off straight away and we can just go and enjoy the occasion.

“We’ve looked at Partick over the last few weeks and we’ve identified where their strengths are and their weaknesses. We have to try and balance that out and make sure we are still competitive within the game but also so that we don’t give anything away.

“There has been a lot of homework done, and if the boys carry the plan out, we can make it difficult for Partick. They played a midweek game a few weeks back against Dundee United, so Tony managed to get up to that one while I took training. We’ve done a lot of research on it, just like the Stenhousemuir game, and to be fair we do research on every game, not just against the big teams.”

The Cuikie faithful will take up almost half of the Jackie Husband stand and Milne says he had the players are so grateful for their support.

He continued: “We’ve sold 1200 tickets so far and we will certainly get close to our 1500 allocation, but we will certainly get close to it with people coming on the day. The support we’ve had from the town has really been magnificent and the boys take a lot of pride from that - they are so thankful for that, not just from the loyal supporters but from the new ones coming on board. The full town is going to be pretty much leaving Penicuik to go to Partick Thistle tomorrow, and it’s just great.

“We re-established ourselves 15, 16 years ago and to get to this point now has been huge, it’s just testament to all the guys that have put in all the work. It’s been a journey, but it has been a good one and this is the pinnacle of the modern era for us.”