Tuesday night’s Scottish Cup heroics have taken Brechin City to within 90 minutes of making club history.
One more win for Jim Weir’s men will steer the Glebe Park club into the last eight of the competition for the first time in more than 100 years of trying.
Division two’s East Stirlingshire and Buckie Thistle of the Highland League will fight it out next week for the right to face the Angus side in the fifth round on February 5, and Weir isn’t shying away from the fact his team will be favourites to progress when that tie comes round.
He said, “Somebody’s got to get to the quarter-finals so why not us?
“We’ll be expected to win against either of the teams which will bring its own pressure but we had to deal with that against Annan a few weeks ago.”
He added, “Brechin have never been to the quarters in their history, so it would be absolutely fantastic for myself and Kevin McGowne if we could take them there. It would be an amazing achievement for the club.
“For me personally it would top anything I’ve ever achieved in the game as a player or manager.”
Weir said, “I travel across the country with my job outwith football and I’ve met a couple of Buckie Thistle supporters, but I have to say that at this stage I don’t know too much about the team.
“I’ll be going to their match with East Stirling, though, so we’ll be doing our homework.”‘Fantastic achievement’Brechin have been this season’s cup specialists from the lower leagues, with Dundee another first division victim in the Co-operative Insurance Cup.
Weir admitted choosing a favourite between the two upsets isn’t easy.
He said, “There’s no doubt that the Queens win is right up there with the Dundee result.
“In terms of how the Dundee game played out, I don’t think you could have asked for a more exciting game of football.
“That was a fantastic achievement, but this time we were away from home against another strong first division team.”
He added, “I’m so proud of my players.
“As a manager you take defeats harder than when you were a player, but nights like last night make it all worthwhile.”
Weir revealed that Palmerston boss Kenny Brannigan helped give Brechin extra motivation by attending the Scottish Cup fifth round draw, which was carried out a few hours before the two clubs met.45-yard shotHe said, “I didn’t go but I heard that Kenny Brannigan did.
“Sometimes things can come back to bite you, and that gave a bit of ammunition to fire my players up.”
Weir felt that the 2-1 scoreline should have been even more emphatic.
He said, “It could have been five or six at half-time.
“Their keeper had two incredible saves.”
He added, “Then Rory McAllister nearly scored the goal of the season when he hit a 45-yarder that came back off the underside of the bar.
“I feared at that point that it might turn out to be one of those nights when Queen of the South would scrape through, but the lads did a great job to finish off the win.”
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user Stuart Chalmers.