Incredible coincidence for Kirkcaldy & Dysart boss aiming to seal club's first ever cup final win

In a weird coincidence, Kirkcaldy-born manager Courts, 41, played against his current charges – known at the time as Kirkcaldy YM JFC – for the Hill of Beath Hawthorn side who thumped them 5-0 in Kirkcaldy’s last final, in the ACA Sports Cup at Ballingry in season 2004-05.

"It kind of is a strange coincidence,” Courts said. “But I don’t remember much about that final 20 years ago, as I’ve played in that many, at least 10 finals.

"Our Kirkcaldy & Dysart kit man Tam Smith managed to get a programme from that cup final and it had my photo in it. He joked to me: ‘You’ve never changed’ and I was like: ‘I definitely have changed in the past 20 years, I can assure you of that!’

"Kirkcaldy has never won a cup final so if I was the first manager here that ever wins a final it would be some achievement.

“The players are really looking forward to it. It’s the first final in men’s football for quite a few of them because we have quite a young team, so a lot of them have played youth finals.

"We will approach this final how we approach every other game.

"We will be the underdogs because we’re playing a team in the league above us. We respect everybody but we don’t fear anybody.”

K & D have a supporters bus leaving for Sunday’s final at 11.20am from Kirkcaldy’s Chapel turning circle – limited seats are available by contacting Alistair Cameron on 07969251765 – but Courts is not overly enamoured with the choice of venue which means those travelling face a trip of around 40 miles.

"The venue has been a bit of a talking point,” Courts said. “To me it’s been a bit of a shambles where they’re holding the cup final but we just have to manage it and go there.

"I think it would have been better if it was central to both teams so we would maybe have got a better crowd.

"Obviously some will go but I think the travelling will put a few people off.

"Even if it had been played somewhere like Bo’ness, Linlithgow or Kelty, that would have been better.

"I even spoke to the Whitburn manager – Darren Wilson – and we discussed doing a ‘heads or tails’ coin toss for either their park or our park but obviously the league has to decide where it is played.”

What should give Courts and his players added belief about going in against a Whitburn side currently sitting fifth in the EoS top flight is that K & D have done well in recent fixtures against bigger clubs.

The boss added: "Albeit it’s been in friendlies, so it’s a different environment, but we’ve played four or five teams from higher leagues and we’ve competed against every one of them.

"So we have nothing to fear. It is a free hit for us because there’s probably no expectations from a lot of people.

"Obviously I know our group of players are capable and I have to install that into them.

"We also played Raith Rovers in a friendly at the start of the season and there was the potential to get a hiding off them because they brought a strong squad.

"But we went out with our normal formation and we actually went at them.

"If you sit in and get nothing it’s absolutely devastating. But if you give it a go and get beaten, at least then you can look back and say you tried.

"Although we lost 3-0 to Raith, I thought we more than competed against them in the first half.”

Other than central midfielder Scott Donald, who is out for two weeks with ankle ligament damage, K & D are at full strength for this Sunday’s final.