‘Go and do our league proud’ says Morrison as Nomads head to Scotland for Irn Bru Cup clash

Connah’s Quay Nomads make their debut in The Irn Bru Scottish Challenge Cup on Saturday as the Deesiders travel to Scotland to take on Dumbarton in their second round tie.

It’ll be the Nomads first ever competitive game against Scottish opposition when they take to the pitch at the 2000 seat ‘YOUR Radio 103FM Stadium’ which lies in the shadow of Dumbarton Rock at the head of the River Leven.

Nomads boss Andy Morrison says the team will head up to Scotland with no fear.

“I will remind the lads that this is their reward for finishing as the ‘part time champions’ of the Welsh Premier League and to go out and enjoy the experience and do our league proud.” said Morrison.

Morrison is welcome of the distraction Saturdays game brings from the Welsh Premier League he said;

“Saturday will be an opportunity for our players to challenge themselves against players from a very strong Scottish Championship team. Having watched Dumbarton in their last two games, we have an idea how they play – a very big strong, organised team awaits us and we must remember that St Mirren were bottom of the Scottish Championship when they beat TNS 4-1 last season, so I think that tells us just how strong the league is.”

Ahead of the tie Nomads striker, Mike Wilde told WPL.Cymru he wants the team to stamp their authority on the Irn Bru Cup, he said;

‘We want to represent The JD Welsh Premier League well, we want to represent Connah’s Quay Nomads well, and we want to go as far as we can in the competition and give a good account of ourselves throughout. We want to stamp our authority on the competition, be in it for as many rounds as possible, and that journey starts on Saturday.’

’Dumbarton will be mindful of what we can produce’

The Nomads will be without a couple of key players for the trip north, Nathan Woolfe and Jake Phillips are sidelined with minor injuries while Declan Poole is seeing a specialist this week for an injection into his groin which will keep him out of action for 6-8 weeks.

The Irn Bru Cup or Scottish League Challenge Cup to give it its non sponsored title is knock-out cup competition run by the Scottish Professional Football League.

Contested by SPFL teams below the top level of the Scottish football league system, the Challenge Cup was expanded to 54 teams for the 2016–17 tournament with the inclusion of Under-20 teams of the twelve Scottish Premiership clubs, and four teams each from the Highland League and Lowland League.

Two guest teams each from Welsh Premier League and The Northern Ireland Football League.