Scottish Cup: Rose boss Herd plots Scottish Cup shock as Championship side Raith Rovers come to Linlithgow

Gordon Herd in action as a player for Linlithgow Rose in their 2008 Scottish Cup fourth round tie against Queen of the South

A sold-out Prestonfield is ready to play host to Ian Murray’s side, and Rose are confident they can cause an upset, with Herd believing he possesses players who could compete alongside their opponents in Scottish football’s second tier.

“If my squad are fully at it, I think we can cause them problems,” said Herd. “Raith are a good side, they have a good front five or six that can cause us problems. We will go and give it a go; we have nothing to lose or fear – there is no pressure on us – it’s just about what we can go and do on the day, it’s about handling the occasion.

“All the pressure is on Raith as they are expected to come and beat us. There is no point on us sitting in and defending, they have players that can hurt us in the final third. We don’t know how to do that anyway, with the players we have got, we are going to go and give it a go.

“We aren’t going to change the way we do anything, we are quite detailed on the feedback we give the players on our opposition as it is, so it’s about the players carrying out the instructions on the day.

“It’s a draw that they probably would have wanted getting a lower league side, but maybe when they look into things a wee bit they will realise that we aren’t just an East of Scotland side. I think we should be playing at a higher level. I am sure Ian will have his team prepared.

“It has the makings of a cracking cup tie. It’s a great test for my boys, because I believe I have got a couple of players who could play in the Championship, two or three in League One and the rest of them could probably play in League Two. It’s about how you look after yourself and that’s maybe how some of these guys are at Raith, whereas I have some players who maybe lost their way in the game but they are getting there.”

Herd has tried to keep a lid on Saturday’s cup tie until they got last weekend’s league match away to Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts out of the way, with the word ‘Raith’ being banned in the dressing room until this week.

Herd, who welcomes back captain Gary Thom from suspension, continued: “It’s the romance of the Scottish Cup. I have tried to stop the players from talking about the game until this week, because I didn’t want anything taking the focus of our league challenge. As soon as Saturday was out the road we were able to start talking about it and planning for it.

“We have went over a few things. The excitement is building now, we are playing a full-time Raith side who are in the Championship. We’ve got a belief in the squad that we can give them a game, we wouldn’t be there if we didn’t feel we could give them a game.”