Ardrossan Winton Rovers
Winton Aiming to be Northern Lights in National Cup
HIGH-FLYING Ardrossan Winton Rovers are travelling in style to their Emirates Scottish Junior Cup second round tie in Aberdeenshire this weekend.
The Stagecoach Ayrshire District League leaders are making the long trip north on Friday instead of the crack of dawn on Saturday and staying overnight nearby thanks to generous support from sponsors the Cafe Palazzo as a reward for their great start to the season which has seen them retain top spot and fully justify their tag as promotion favourites.
They maintained their unbeaten league record on Saturday, coming back from 2-0 and then a 3-2 deficit behind to draw 3-3 at Darvel.
Winton have won six of their eight games and are on 20 points, one ahead of closest challengers Dalry Thistle, who hammered struggling Irvine Victoria 5-0 at Merksworth Park on Saturday.
Chairman Dougie Rae said "We are grateful to the Cafe Palazzo who are great supporters of the club and the company for their backing and they have been very generous. But the players are also contributing towards the cost of the accommodation which is good of them."
Manager Derek Frye added "The players deserve a reward for the efforts and although they bond every week together on the park it will be nice for us to spend some time together. We will leave at 6pm on Friday and will get there by about 10.30pm and hopefully the lads will enjoy their overnight stay. I don't know much about Longside but if my guys play as well as I know they can they will win the tie. It would be good if we could be playing in the Scottish Junior Cup come the end of the year."
Looking back on the weekend Frye said "We didn't play for the 90 minutes at Darvel on Saturday but we did well to fight back from 2-0 down and the important thing is we did not get beaten and maintained our unbeaten record in the league. Darvel are not the best side in the league, they are better than a couple of years ago although it wouldn't be hard and they are very stuffy and hard to break down."
This article has been reproduced by kind permission the editor, Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald.