Scottish Cup | Armstrong welcomes wrestle with Rose in ‘the Scottish’

Posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2022

One exciting addition to the Spartans stables this season has been the industrious playmaker Rhys Armstrong. The talented midfielder, who joined in the summer break, has eased himself into Dougie Samuel’s squad and is relishing Saturday’s Scottish Cup trip to Linlithgow Rose.

Spartans head into the game sitting in fourth spot in the Lowland League and on the back of five victories and a quadruple of consecutive clean sheets in the process.

Ahead of the visit to Prestonfield Stadium, Armstrong was in a confident mood, “We’ll be looking to take that the momentum over the last few weeks into Saturday’s game at Linlithgow and build on what has been a good run for the lads.

“Whilst it’s no secret that the League continues to remain our priority, last week was a solid performance in the South Challenge Cup and obviously the Scottish Cup offers that special place in anyone’s career, such is the tournament’s history.

“The boys have been building confidence in each and every game. Our defence has gelled well together and it’s great to see the Cat (Blair Carswell) continue with the clean sheets too.

“We’re working hard on the training ground each week and this is paying off on a Saturday and hopefully we can take this into Saturday’s game at Linlithgow.

Armstrong, who has found the net 5 times himself this season so far including last week’s win against Berwick Rangers, is one of many players who have scored goals and the talented playmaker is pleased to see that these have been divided across the team.

“It’s always good when the whole team are capable of scoring and we’re not just relying on the likes of Hendo (Blair Henderson) or Sean (Brown) to knock them in for us.

Saturday will be the 71st appearance in the competition for Spartans – their 40th on the road. The sides have met once before – way back in 2007/08, with Rose coming out on top although it is fair to say there’s been a bit of water under the proverbial bridge since for both sides.

As cliches go, the perennial romance of the cup is always a treat for players – an opportunity which often throws up the chance to play different teams from other leagues.

It’s a tasty tie that Armstrong is setting his crosshairs on: “For me, matches in the Scottish Cup are unique. They are one-off games, almost like each tie is your cup final. It’s a big thing for any player to progress as far as you can in it and hope you can get drawn against one the big clubs.

“It’ll certainly be a different game in terms of what we are probably used to in the Lowland League but we’ll work on our game plan and look forward to the match on Saturday.”

Scottish Cup 2nd Round v Linlithgow Rose. Prestonfield Stadium. Kick-off 3pm.