Seven-goal Bonnyrigg striker not assured of Scottish Cup start

Bonnyrigg striker Wayne McIntosh missed last week because of a holiday

The hot-shot missed out on last week’s 1-1 draw in the Highlands due to a family holiday in Tenerife – despite wife Stephanie informing the 31-year-old that he’d be back in time.

Striker McIntosh thought he’d arrive back in Edinburgh early on Saturday morning, allowing himself sufficient time to make his own way to the Aberdeenshire club’s ground in time for kick-off.

It wasn’t until a chance conversation with another holidaying couple that the striker learned he wouldn’t be arriving back until the morning of last Sunday, throwing his plans into chaos.

“I was just about divorced and everything because of it,” joked McIntosh.

“My wife told me before we went away that we were getting back first thing on the Saturday morning. I was thinking perfect, so I told the manager and all the boys that I would be available. Even if I wasn’t going to start with being away, at least I was still an option maybe on the bench.

“It wasn’t until a couple of days into the holiday when we were speaking to another couple who were on our flight, that they mentioned a Saturday night flight. I had to just text the gaffer to say I wasn’t going to make it.”

McIntosh scored 37 goals last season as Rose secured the title. He is the leading scorer in the Scottish Cup at the moment after just one appearance against Burntisland Shipyard, when he struck seven in a 14-0 rout as Rose secured the biggest win in the competition since 1984.

But, after missing last week’s match and Bo’ness away the week before, he isn’t assured of a starting place tomorrow with Fraser McLaren – scorer of the New Dundas Park men’s equaliser last week – and Scott Gray, back from a summer spent in America, vying for a starting spot in Rose’s front three.

He said: “I’ve trained hard this week so I’m hoping I’ve given the manager a headache. If I’m not starting I’ll be cheering the boys on and if the gaffer needs me to go on I’ll be raring to go.

“I’ve been banging the goals in lately. I’ve scored ten goals in my last three games and to do that at any level is a good achievement. I hope the manager has that in the back of his head, thinking ‘I need to go with the boys that are scoring goals’.”

Rose will take on Turriff’s Highland League rivals and current champions Cove Rangers at home in round two if they can navigate tomorrow’s replay.

Although they avoided a tie against a League Two club, Bonnyrigg could have had a far easier draw. But, pointing to a 4-1 pre-season success against Championship club Raith Rovers, McIntosh is confident they can give any side a game in the competition.

He added: “It’s a good draw, although there were other teams who we’d have liked to get. Cove Rangers are league champions so they’ll be decent. We can’t look too far ahead, we need to beat Turriff first. We don’t fear anybody, we are league champions, it comes down to who will want it more.

“If we are up for a game, we’ll give anybody a game. We showed that against Raith Rovers in pre-season when we beat them 4-1 – I thought we were absolutely brilliant. They had boys like Rudi Skacel playing and we done them over.”

Rose returned to Midlothian last Saturday frustrated that they hadn’t put the tie to bed. They were in control for the majority of the match but couldn’t make their chances count and fell behind to a stunning strike, only for McLaren to pop up with an equaliser.

“We were a wee bit disappointed not to get the job done last week,” said Bonnyrigg boss Robbie Horn.

“They sat back and defended as the home team, which was a compliment to us, but I was surprised as it was a 50-50 game. We’ll see how they line-up tomorrow.”