Bonnyrigg Rose aim to send a league reminder to beaks at the SFA

Rose’s top goalscorer, who has netted 29 goals so far this season, reckons their opponents may approach the showpiece with too much confidence and, what is more, he believes they Rose already shown they can compete at that level considering they have knocked out Lowland League opposition on their route to the final.

The East of Scotland champions will also have added extra-motivation, should they need any, to prove a point on Sunday given their SFA licence appeal was rejected last Friday, closing the door on them competing in next season’s Lowland League for now, as the club continue to explore further options.

“The gaffer [Robbie Horn] said it after the decision came out, that if we keep winning games it helps the point that we should be in the Lowland League,” said Lough.

“The club spoke to us and said they expected that to happen [appeal rejected by the SFA]. As the statement they put out said, they are looking into other ways of trying to overturn it so fingers crossed. Fair play to the club, they aren’t leaving any stone unturned.

“The main intention for Bonnyrigg after moving across to the Senior ranks is to climb the ladder and the team that we’ve got is more than capable of challenging, and Sunday will be a good tester for that.

“We’ve already beaten East Stirlingshire and BSC Glasgow this season and these were teams that finished in the top half of the Lowland League and we were fairly comfortable against them both.

“It will be a different game; in a cup final there is a lot more emotion in it than an earlier round. It would be good to bring more silverware back.

“We know on any given day we can give any non league team a game. If we concentrate on us, we don’t need to worry about them. It’s our game to win, it’s not about them. I think it will be a really good game, I don’t know how to describe it. They will think they are probably favourites, but at the end of the day we’ll be more evenly matched [than they think]. We are confident going into it, the boys are right up for it.”

Lough is currently enjoying a sustained run in attack for the club which has come as a result of an ankle injury to fellow frontman Keiran McGachie, with the former Penicuik Athletic man having previously had to bide his time on the sidelines.

He continued: “I’ve got a bit of fitness about me now. It was a slow start, but in the last two or three months I’ve been playing most of the games, which has helped. The goals come when I play games and I am over the moon about all the goals I’ve got so far, and there is still more to get.

“Keiran is a huge part of the team, and even since he’s been injured he’s still been a huge part of the team on the sidelines, helping the boys out and giving us encouragement. For me, since he has been out, it has given me the chance to play games and I’ve scored a lot of goals since the middle of March when he got injured. For the team in general, having a player down of the magnitude that he brings, has been quite tough, because the demands on the strikers just goes up with the amount of games we have played since then.”

Rose boss Horn admits that it has been incredibly difficult to focus on matters on the pitch, with the goings on off over the past few weeks, but he is confident his players can continue to show resilience during such adversity.

“Looking at their squad, they’ve got a lot of experienced, good players so it is going to be massive challenge for us,” said Horn.

“They are where we want to be, in the Lowland League and trying to compete at the top end. Looking at some of the teams next season, they are really having a right crack at it and spending a lot of money to try and get themselves out of it and, fair play, if they’ve got the money to do it, then why shouldn’t they have a real crack it? Both East Kilbride and Kelty are showing ambition by trying to get quality players.

“There isn’t much we can do at this moment in time, things will sort themselves out over time hopefully. We just have to concentrate on what is going on on the park.

“It has left us in limbo a little bit, not knowing what league we are going to be playing in which affects players signing, budgets, and even pre-season friendlies.”

Elsewhere, Tranent are in action tonight at home against Crossgates in the semi-final of the King Cup, with Linlithgow Rose or Bonnyrigg waiting in the final.