He only signed his initial contract for two weeks as interim manager but 25 years later Charlie Duncan is STILL in charge of Fraserburgh FC who take on Spartans in the Scottish Cup this afternoon at Bellslea Park .

The Broch's boss is a truly remarkable man. He played Highland League football in every decade from the 1960's to the 1990's and also had spells down south as a player at Wimbledon and Crystal Palace . He collapsed with a suspected heart problem last year but was out of hospital within a week and headed straight to Bellslea to take training. He has also hauled in nine trophies for the Broch including a first Highland League title win in 70 years in 2002. Not bad for a guy who had a clause in that initial contract that he could walk away before the fortnight was up if he didn't fancy it!

Charlie has also established a youth system that is the envy of many a manager and refuses to waver in his commitment to local youth despite calls from some Fraserburgh fans to ship in players from Aberdeen or from other HFL clubs for fees beyond the shoestring budget of many north non-league sides. Duncan is also out at matches three times a week and takes training twice a week. Makes you wonder if the self-employed builder is really full time at Fraserburgh FC!

Charlie has one ambition left- a Scottish Cup run. He almost met Celtic a few years ago but his ambitions were scuppered by Whitehill Welfare in Round 2 now the Edinburgh side with SFL ambition stand between Duncan and at least a 2nd Division encounter in Round 3 of the newly revamped national cup competition.

Duncan admits Spartans will be me more street smart but reckons the Broch, aided by those beach runs along the north east coast that would make Jock Wallace proud, will be fitter.

Highland League v East of Scotland League. Battle commences 3pm today (Saturday)

Lossiemouth are another Highland League side in cup action this afternoon when they take on 2nd place in the 3rd Division Albion Rovers who set off for the north at 9am.

Rovers boss Paul Martin has called Lossie "A Trojan Horse" an unknown quantity who pool many of their players from offshore workers.

Rovers hammered non-leaguers Burntisland Shipyard 8-0 in 2007 but have struggled in the past against non-league sides with Deveronvale a few years ago and more famously Glasgow University in the early 1970's shocking the Coatbridge outfit.

Highland Leaguers Vale won at Cliftonhill but that result looks almost normal compared with the Uni boys famous draw in Lanarkshire. Albion just scraped through 1-0 in the replay at the Uni playing fields. The game played on a Tuesday afternoon watched by nearly 3,000 students crammed tightly round the field of play, a truly surreal cup tie.

Non-leaguers playing higher opponents should take heart from the many cup shocks in the early rounds of the cup. Eyemouth (who used fish boxes as turnstiles to gather gate money) 3 Cowdenbeath 0 in the 1960's, Glasgow Uni's exploits in the 1970's against Albion, Buckie's 3-2 win over Meadowbank (now Livingston) in the 1980's and ofcourse there was a certain game in 1967 when both teams were called Rangers with the one from Berwick coming out on top over their Glasgow visitors.

And before that in 1939 Burntisland Shipyard led Celtic before succumbing to a 3-2 Half Time scoreline in favour of the Bhoys and a final result of 3-8 in favour of the Glaswegians. Not a Berwick but certainly the first 45 minutes could be ranked as one of the best David v Goliath battles of all time in our national cup competition.

It shouldn't be forgotten that Fraserburgh beat Dundee 1-0 in a 1959 SFA Cup tie with the Dens Parkers fielding 7 Scottish Internationals on the day.