The Scottish Sunday Trophy offered this young side their first taste of national cup football. Facing established opposition, they went in with belief and left with lessons — and plenty of pride. We caught up with the manager afterwards to get his take on the experience.

The Manager Speaks

Here’s the manager’s take in full, as he looked back on the tie and ahead to the season.

What made your team enter the Scottish Sunday Trophy this season?

As this is the club’s first season, we wanted to test ourselves in the Scottish Sunday Trophy to really challenge ourselves against good opposition.

Even at this early stage, was the experience of playing in the competition worthwhile for your players and coaches?

100% worth it. Cup games give you a different type of feeling before the game — exciting… win or go home. The boys definitely learned from today’s game which, on a different day, the scoreline could have been very different.

How do you feel your side matched up against today’s opposition, given the different league levels?

We knew going into the game it was against a well-established Sunday league team. The boys didn’t shy away from the challenge and, in fact, this may be bias, but I felt for the majority of the game it was us creating the chances but failing to finish.

Was there a point in the game when you felt the tie could swing your way?

After going 3–1 down, I turned to the assistant gaffer Craig and said if we get one before the last 10 we’ve got enough quality to take it to pens. Unfortunately for the boys there was a big obstruction in the way today… the crossbar 🤣🤣🤣

What do you hope your team takes from this competition into the rest of the league season?

I hope the boys take the lesson of going toe-to-toe with a great team and playing football the way we want — creating chances, winning the ball back how we did, and being able to punish teams quickly. Fordbank will no doubt pick up form and finish well this season.

Based on your experience so far, do you see the club entering again next season?

100%. Today gave the club a benchmark to go and improve for the next season.

Cup runs can be short, sharp, and unforgiving — but they always leave a mark. For this manager, the message was clear: the standard has been set, and the hunger is there to go again. Our roving reporters will be back on the touchlines chasing the next story — but we’d love to hear from you too. Send us your photos, match reports, and player nominations so we can shine a light on your club’s journey.