Greens in cup clash with County

The Robbie Dyes are back at MansfieldPark for a Scottish Cup quarter-final against fellow BT Premiership side Stirling County.

The Greens are usually a fairly formidable unit at home, while they are further encouraged by the challenge of good-quality opposition – who recently beat them 25-12 in the league – and the chance of a step nearer Murrayfield.

Head coach George Graham is glad to have game time again after a break and said the players had been practising fairly intensely.

“We played County a few weeks ago – we played very, very well for the first 20 minutes and should have closed our opportunities down when we got them,” he said. “Stirling came into the game and made us pay for our errors.

“But we have kept the boys ticking over – we have done a lot of fitness, strength and conditioning, and we have worked on aspects of our game that we think we need to work on. It will just be a matter of turning up on Saturday and trying to implement them.”

Making sure everyone knew their role, plus the incentive of a cup run should help against Stirling, whom Hawick have beaten on their last two visits to Mansfield.

“I really believe in the whole point of the Scottish Cup, and everybody gets an opportunity to try and play there, so it’s a big, big thing for the club and all the fans. We will be doing our utmost to get there,” said Graham.