Deveronvale player-manager Garry Wood aims to plot downfall of first senior club Elgin City in Scottish Gas Scottish Cup second round at Borough Briggs
His football career began at Elgin City, and he’s aiming to bring them down with a Scottish Cup shock this weekend.
Deveronvale player manager Garry Wood played his first senior match as a 16-year-old schoolboy for the club he faces in a huge match this weekend.
He was a full-time apprentice at Borough Briggs before going on to carve out a goalscoring career in the Scottish game with the likes of Caley Thistle, Ross County, Peterhead and Montrose.
Now 37, Wood has featured for several Highland League sides and still plays as well as manages Vale, who landed a plum draw against fellow north side City this weekend.
He takes the Banff club on a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup second round mission to Elgin, where he netted his first senior goal at 17 before scoring several times against his former club in the colours of Montrose.
“I’ve nothing but good memories about my time at Elgin,” he recalled. “I was straight out of school and there was a batch of us that went full-time.
“We predominantly played under-17s, under-19s, and there were a few of us in the first team as well, so I was lucky enough to be one of them that was always involved with the first team.
“I remember my debut at East Stirling when I came on in the final game of the season. I was still at school at the time.
“I maybe made 20, 30 appearances over that 18-month spell, which at 16, 17, you can't really ask for much more from that point of view.
“It was great for me at the start of my career and I'll always look back on it with fond memories.”
Having steered Deveronvale to a fine victory at former cup shock troops Darvel in round one, Wood would love to cause another upset by toppling his old side on Saturday.
“We put in a good performance at Darvel and got the reward of another tasty tie, and we look forward to testing ourselves against a team that’s a league above us.
“It will be a real challenge but one we will be ready for.”
Deveronvale’s first team coach Graeme Watt scored when the clubs last met on Scottish Cup business in 2007 in a famous Vale victory.
Elgin had scraped past one Highland League side in the first round that season when they edged out Buckie Thistle at Borough Briggs, but Vale proved to be a tougher hurdle.
A big Banff crowd was bouyant when the home side raced into a sensational 4-0 lead inside the opening half hour.
Mark Chisholm, Ian Murray, Mark Smith and Mike McKenzie all netted as the Banffshire side tore into a City side that was managerless at the time after parting company with Aberdeen legend Brian Irvine just before Christmas.
Elgin rallied to pull it back to 4-2 thanks to a Martin Johnston double either side of half time.
But current coach Watt made it 5-2, and although Johnston completed his hat-trick and present Brora Rangers boss Steven Mackay scored for the visitors, Vale hung on for a deserved success.
Work commitments will rob Deveronvale of Watt’s services this weekend, along with his knowledge on how to cause a cup shock against the Black and Whites.
But Wood himself knows how to get the better of his former employers from his own playing career.
“It’s a good few years since I’ve been at Borough briggs but I’m looking forward to going back,” he said.
“We used to play them quite often when I was in Montrose. My record’s not too bad against Elgin to be fair over the years.
“I've managed to get a few so of course I’f love to continue that on Saturday. Although my role's maybe slightly changed from what it was back then as I’ve been playing mostly in midfield, when I’ve been needed by the team.
“We'll be looking to try and perform the best as we can and we'll see where it takes us on Saturday. We're under no illusions how difficult the game's going to be.
“We'll do a bit of homework on them and see what we can do and if there's any things that we think we can exploit, we'll look to do that.
“But ultimately it's the same as every game and we'll treat it as if we feel we can perform to our maximum then it gives us an opportunity to go and win the game and we'll be looking to do that on Saturday.
“For every club that's playing a team above them in the leagues, there's the hope and I guess that's the nostalgia of the cup. Elgin will be out to make sure that that doesn't happen.
“If we get an early goal you just never know. Sometimes you get the stories in the Scottish Cup and let's hope that we're one of them on Saturday.”
It’s not far for Deveronvale supporters to travel east into Moray and Wood hopes a big red army can help his team’s chances.
“The fans have been great. Even down at Darvel there was a whole busload down which they probably outnumbered the actual Darvel supporters so it was great to see.
“I’m sure there will be more with it being a bit more of a local derby on Saturday.”
The pressure will be on Elgin to get a result and Wood wants his youthful squad to enjoy the occasion.
“There's only the pressure that we put amongst ourselves. It's the Scottish Cup and everybody gets that extra five, ten percent lift.
“We have got a young team, there's no denying that so we're hopeful that they're all going with no fear and don't get caught up with the emotion of the game.
“Barring a couple of performances here and there, on the whole we've been a lot more consistent in terms of our performances this year.
“The only disappointing thing is we seem to go behind in games, which we're trying to eradicate.
“In the same token, the amount of comebacks that we've had this season from being one or two goals behind has been good to see. If we can cut out that sloppiness to start with then it gives ourselves a fighting chance in the games.
“We've done really well against the bigger teams this season, they have risen to the occasion and we’ll look to go in with confidence and hopefully we can cause an upset.”
Vale could be fresh, or ring rusty, when they troop out at Borough Briggs as they have only played once in the last three weeks.
A windy weather postponement was followed by a 4-2 defeat to champions Brora, then another blank Saturday last week with scheduled opponents Forres Mechanics involved in the North Cup final.
Mikey Watson is Vale’s only injury doubt after going off in the Brora defeat..