Esson hopes to take Jags into new territory in the Scottish Cup
Strathspey Thistle boss Ryan Esson had to dig deep into his book of football contacts to get the lowdown on this weekend’s Scottish Cup opponents Sauchie Juniors.
The Jags manager’s early progress amid a frenetic spell of nine games in just over four weeks culminated in a tremendous performance and 3-3 draw with Nairn County at the weekend.
Now, after a much-needed seven days without midweek action, focus shifts to a home encounter with East of Scotland Premier Division title-chasers in the Scottish Cup.
Sauchie currently sit fourth in the league, three points off title pace.
Esson, who lifted the famous old trophy with Caley Thistle in 2015, would never take the competition lightly even though league progress is the overriding priority this season.
In that spirit, there has been some crafty reconnaissance work carried out ahead of a clash with a team, technically one Scottish league tier - sixth - below Strathspey.
“I’ve had to pull in a few favours, let’s just say!” Esson admitted. “We’ve managed to get some information on them and we’ll have a wee look at it.
“Sauchie are doing well in their league, although they got beaten on Saturday. They are a tough team.
“A lot of those junior teams are paying players well and have big ambitions. It’s not as straightforward as people think. This is a tough game for us.
“Our priority is always the league, but the Scottish Cup for me is a special competition, with that bit of magic about it, and one where you should always look to do your best.
“I’m not just saying that because we won it at Caley.
“It should always be a big thing, but our main focus is going to be the league.”
Esson was delighted with the performance against Nairn where his team led in the first half through a Paul Brindle strike.
Nairn tore back at them with two goals from Ben Barron in 51 and 63 minutes. Not so long ago, that might have spelled the end for the Jags, but they rallied tremendously and regained the lead through a Liam Shgewan penalty just four minutes later and a Filip Franczak finish in 73 minutes.
After huge endeavour, it was disappointing to see Barrton complete his hat-trick for the rattled hosts.
But Esson stressed: “It was a really good performance - the best football we’ve played since I’ve been at the club.
“I think we’ve been competitive in a lot of the games we’ve played
“If we can cut out silly goals, we win that game against Nairn County.
“Fair play to Nairn, they changed their shape at half-time and came back at us.
“But it just shows how far we’ve come because, before, going 2-1 down, we go under.
“Three or four weeks ago, Nairn would have won the game in that scenario.
“Our mindset was ‘we can still win this’ and we go back to 3-2 up and should have won it.
“But it is brilliant to see the character in them now. They now believe they can go and get results.
“I’m feeling very positive. Don’t get me wrong, I can get angry at them as well!
“But I’m trying not to do that as they are learning about me and I’m learning about them.”
