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BELLSLEA BULLETIN 19
The Interview
Bryan Hay An undoubted highlight of the season to date has been our Scottish Cup run. Bryan Hay is someone who has been through it all many times before - this being his sixteenth Scottish Cup campaign - and like everyone at the Club he’s delighted with how it’s gone this year. Bryan said, “The Annan result really was massive for us a team. Not only the result but I think the performance too. In the end we probably could have won by a more comfortable margin. We have played SPFL League teams in the Scottish Cup in the past and, although we have caused some upsets, we have probably let ourselves down a bit. I think we have probably lacked a bit of belief when coming up against this kind of opposition. “But I think our belief and mentality were spot on against Annan as the performance and result showed. The Coaching staff had done their due diligence on them. The two midfielders loved to get on the ball as much as they could, which you would expect from players of the calibre of Wullie Gibson and Paul McGowan, and they had a live wire who would play anywhere along the front line in Aidan Smith, as well as other threats obviously. But we nullified these threats quite well and even when it got to the
later stages when Annan were starting to pile players forward I never felt like we were ever in real danger of conceding which is great testament to the whole team. “Having the game at the Bellslea was a big help and when the home crowd get up it’s hard for any team coming here.” All eyes then turned to the Fourth Round draw with the prospect of meeting one of the big guns. “I’m not too sure where to start with this one! I honestly had a gut feeling that something big was going to happen and to be honest this is what I thought It would be. When I saw Rangers get pulled out for a home tie I called it right away - we’re the next team coming out. It turned out to be so and I just burst out laughing. I couldn’t believe it happened again, but it just shows the magic of the Scottish Cup. “I’m so happy for everyone involved with the Club that we have landed the tie that we have. Firstly for the team and the management who put in countless hours of work through the week and give up so much at weekends - they really do deserve this, but at the end of the day these guys are rewarded when
they get to walk out onto the pitch on a Saturday afternoon and represent such a special club as Fraserburgh. We get all the plaudits when things go well on the pitch and also are well looked after financially so we already are very lucky really. “The guys behind the scenes will be breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t a home tie this time around, hopefully a bit less stressful for them, but they deserve this more than anyone.The board and committee put in just as much work as the playing staff, if not more, doing all the jobs that go unnoticed to most and allow us to play football every weekend so I’m just as happy for them. “The tie obviously comes with financial implications for the club which will hopefully contribute to the successful running of the club for years to come. Fingers crossed the board and committee and further FFC family can get a good day out at one of Europe’s biggest clubs and enjoy the whole experience.” Bryan is one of several survivors who played in the previous encounter back in 2018. “The last time this happened, back in 2018 was a pretty surreal experience. None of us had been
