Celtic Sides Meet In Irn-Bru Cup

Last year's winners of the Irn-Bru Cup lost out to Irish opposition yesterday and today Queen of the South are facing The New Saints, or to give them their full name The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club a Welsh team that plays in Oswetry, Shropshire. I agree a bit confusing for a Scottish Cup competition but there you go.

Queens manager, Gary Naysmith, is full of confidence as he looked ahead to the quarter-final game. He said: "After three wins on the bounce in the Championship and being unbeaten in six, the players have a real spring in their step just now and are rightly full of confidence.  This weekend it's something different for us, an away trip to The New Saints in the quarter final of a national competition.  We always wanted a home draw but once we got an away tie, we were pleased it wasn't against someone from our own league.  You play the teams in the division often enough so this gives us something new and a bit of freshness and it's a game we're all looking forward to. We are playing a team from Wales who have been very successful in their own league, a team who regularly play European football and a side who are used to winning games, so its a good challenge for us."

The New Saints are no strangers to the competition and are hoping to secure a place in the semi-finals for the second year in a row. Today's game is The New Saints’ third home draw on the bounce this season, in contrast with the 2016/2017 competition which saw three consecutive away game. Wins at Forfar Athletic and Livingston were followed by a semi-final defeat at St Mirren. Manager Scott Ruscoe will be treating the visitors with respect, saying: "It’s a big game. They’re a good side, a mixture of youth and experience. It’s going to be a tough test and everyone needs to be at their best if we are gong to beat them."

You can watch the game on S4C’s Sgorio with the kick off scheduled for 14:45.