Drumchapel United’s Scottish Cup dream was, quite literally, put on ice as their eagerly-awaited fourth round tie at Elgin City failed to beat the elements.

And manager Adam Hopes suspects they could be facing a further postponement after surveying the pitch at Borough Briggs. The West of Scotland League First Division club, the lowest ranked side still in the competition, journeyed hopefully north on Friday night as they gambled on Elgin’s surface thawing in time for a historic occasion.

But a pitch inspection on Saturday morning ruled the still-frozen pitch unplayable and the two teams are scheduled to go again on Tuesday night, leaving the Drum facing another arduous journey, only this time for a midweek evening kick-off.

Hopes suggested more could have been done to get the game on and the postponed encounter will be subject to another pitch inspection on Monday. And the Drumchapel boss feels they may be met with the same outcome again.

“Very disappointed, because we’ve made the journey up and now we need to go to Elgin again,” he said. “But, I suppose, it’s just one of these things; you can’t control the weather.

“Could Elgin have gone about it a wee bit better after seeing the way Arbroath went about getting the game on? Probably, yes. But it’s one of those things and we need to move on.

“We will still be right up for it. Nothing will change in the way we go about the game, but I doubt Tuesday night will be on. Personally, I think it will be the following Tuesday, just with how bad the ice was. There was solid ice right through every blade of grass.”

The Drum, who only turned semi-professional three years ago, have a squad who will be straight back to the day jobs come the onset of a new week, but Hopes is confident they will have no added absentees. They could even welcome back former Dumbarton captain Andy Geggan, who would have missed Saturday’s fixture.

The club decided to press on with their venture up to Moray because they felt the pitch had a chance of making. Confusion reigned on Friday as conflicting photo evidence raised uncertainty over the condition of the surface. In the end, however, it was not to be.

“It’ll be alright in regard to availability,” Hopes insisted. “Everyone who was available on Saturday is available for Tuesday. Martin Grechan is unavailable and Andy Geggan is touch and go.

“It’s just upsetting the fact we have to make another eight hour round trip, but that was a gamble we took as a club. We saw photos from Elgin and the pitch was green. It was icy but we thought it might’ve had a wee chance. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.”

That their luck was not in does prove costly for Drumchapel, who forked out for a 39-seater team bus and commandeered an entire floor of Elgin’s Travelodge, not to mention putting on several coaches for supporters that were swiftly turned around before they had even reached Perth yesterday morning.

Hopes, however, was determined to look on the bright side. He pointed out that his team will now be in the hat for this evening’s fifth round draw, meaning they could head back to Elgin knowing a dream tie against a Premiership heavyweight is their reward for prevailing. The manager believes that will fill his players with added drive to endure another 250-mile round trip.

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“It’s definitely cost the club,” Hopes admitted. “But the one positive we can take from the outcome is that we will know, if we progress into the last 16, who our opponents will be.

“It will be a massive incentive for us, but we’ll just need to wait and see what happens at 6 o’clock.