Forfar Athletic and Linlithgow Rose will get back together tonight to fight it out for a meeting with Ross County in the William Hill Scottish Cup fifth round after a feisty 3-3 draw and an abandonment.
The Loons blew a two-goal lead against 10 men in the first meeting, with last Tuesday’s replay starting late due to the flares thrown on the pitch by visiting fans and then being called off after just six minutes due to a floodlight failure.
Forfar boss Gary Bollan reckons that there is more than progress at stake as a win would help kick-start the Angus men in their battle to move up the League One table.
After making the promotion play-off final last season, Forfar are now facing the relegation play-offs and Bollan is hoping that winning for the first time in seven games will provide the confidence needed to improve their league position.
The Loons went down 1-0 to Stenhousemuir on Saturday and Bollan said: “We played reasonably well and showed that we could keep possession to a high standard. However, we never created much in the final third.
“The league table does not lie but there are capable players at this club and progress is being made but we need to get confidence into the ranks.
“Hopefully playing well and getting a positive result over Linlithgow Rose will do that. We did not take any credit from our first meeting with them but we have the chance to put that right.”
Rose manager Dave McGlynn, meanwhile, is looking for his players to rise to the occasion once more in a Scottish Cup run that has already featured travelling over 1,600 miles.
Rose drew with Irvine Meadow in the Scottish Junior Cup at the weekend and McGlynn will freshen his side up.
“It was good to get playing again as all we have had since the first game with Forfar were the few minutes in last Tuesday’s game before it was called off,” he said.
“We struggled to play like we can against Irvine Meadow and in a number of ways we are lucky still to be in the cup.
“I will make changes and, whilst some of them will be enforced, others will be to ensure we are fresher.”
Gary Thom, Ruari MacLennan and Chris Gray are all suspended and Roddy MacLennan is out injured, but Colin Leiper is expected to return to the starting line-up.
Linlithgow are determined that there will be no repeat of the behaviour from a small section of fans who threw flares onto the pitch last week.
A club spokesperson said: “We are determined that there will be no repeat of those scenes and have worked closely with the authorities ahead of this game.
“We know that our hundreds of true supporters were embarrassed by what they saw at Forfar. Some people let us all down very badly last week and we have done everything possible to ensure that it does not happen again.”