At the weekend we watched as the likes of Bonnyrigg Rose and Albion Rovers tried to create a shock in the football world - and this Saturday it is the turn of Kirkcaldy and Aberdeenshire rugby clubs to try and do the same.
The BT Cup has reached the last 16 stage and they are the only two clubs left in the draw from the third tier of the amateur game.
Kirkcaldy, who sit ninth in BT National League Division Two, face a very tough test against holders Heriot’s at home while Aberdeenshire, fifth in the same division, make the long journey to Jed-Forest.
The Fifers go into their match at Beveridge Park off the back of a 59-12 defeat to Cartha Queens Park in the league.
However, on January 7 they did defeat Hillhead/Jordanhill 85-5 to start 2017 with a bang and in that one Kurt Littlejohn scored five tries.
The 25-year-old centre or full-back said: “It was a great start to the new year running in five tries on my home ground and in front of my home crowd.
“I had never scored five tries in one match before and I am not sure if I will again, so I just enjoyed the moment.
It was a great performance and the team pulled together well to take the win. However, in my opinion our best performance to date this term was against Musselburgh in the last round of the BT Cup.
“They are in the division above us, but we played out of our skin and everything seemed to click, we took the win which set us up to play against Heriot’s in the next stage of the cup.”
In that round two tie at Muselburgh, Kirkcaldy conceded early on, but responded with two Mark Wallace scores either side of a James Pow try to lead 17-13 at half-time.
Another Pow try from a pushover scrum extended the gap to 24-13, before Finlay Bruce’s red card allowed the home side back into it.
Littlejohn added a fifth try and although they went down to 13 men near the end the visitors held on 32-27.
A kitchen fitter by trade, Littlejohn knows that Heriot’s will start as big favourites on Saturday, but believes the team spirit in their side will help.
“I first started playing rugby when I was six at Kirkcaldy, so to have come through the ranks here and now play for the first team week in, week out is special,” he stated.
“I have had the opportunity to play in lots of different places and have met a lot of great friends.
“Our club is close knit and has a great atmosphere, very friendly and welcoming. We work hard for each other and everyone trains really hard too.
“It will be great to have a club like Heriot’s coming to our ground and we will just give it our best shot and enjoy the occasion.”
Meanwhile, Aberdeenshire are off to Riverside Park to take on BT National League Division One title chasers Jed-Forest.
In round two they saw off West of Scotland 46-15 away from home and full-back Nat Coe feels that a good performance in this game in the Borders can set Aberdeenshire up for a strong finish to the season.
“We were in the Borders at the weekend just past and we felt we let ourselves down a bit as we went down 31-20 to Peebles in the league,” 22-year-old PE teacher Coe said.
“The aim this season was to challenge for promotion as we felt we were good enough too, but we have been a bit inconsistent.
“We know that we have good players in the squad though and we all enjoy working with coaches Alex Duncan and Kevin Wyness and believe in what they are trying to build at the club.
“The Jed match will be a good test for us and we are relishing the challenge, there is always something pretty special about a big cup tie.”
Saturday’s BT Cup round three fixtures
Gala v Hawick
Dundee HSFP v Stirling County
Glasgow Hawks v Watsonians
Aberdeen Grammar v Ayr
Melrose v Currie
Boroughmuir v Edinburgh Academical
Kirkcaldy v Heriot’s
Jed-Forest v Aberdeenshire
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here