LIAM McVey is planning to atone for the darkest days in his career by helping deliver Rob Roy into the Emirates Junior Cup quarter- finals tomorrow.

A shot at glory awaits the Kirkintilloch outfit if they can overcome East Region big guns Bo'ness United in their delayed Fifth Round tie at Adamslie Park.

And the 28-year-old postman is savouring the prospect after fearing that showpiece Junior Cup games were a thing of the past for him.

The three-times Scottish Cup winner with Auchinleck Talbot arrived at that conclusion after finding himself ousted by newcomer Gordon Pope and reduced to a bit part role as the Ayrshire cracks stormed to yet another cup final appearance last season.

He picked up a loser's medal as an unused substitute in the shock 2-1 defeat by Shotts Bon Accord but there was no healing the hurt felt by being on the outside looking in and Liam brought an eight years playing stint to an end by moving to Adamslie Park pastures last summer.

And now he regards a victory over Bo'ness as yet another instalment in the debt he feels is owed to Rabs gaffer Jimmy Lindsay for having faith in the full-back's abilities.

He said: "Hopefully if we get past this hurdle then our cup run can go all the way to the final itself. However, experience has taught me to take one game at a time in the Scottish Cup so my focus is on nothing other than Bo'ness.

"I played in both semi-final legs when Talbot beat them in the season before last and they are clearly one of the consistently big players in the cup reckoning so it's going to take a massive performance to get through.

"I'm sure both sides are going to be up for it and speaking personally I want to grab this opportunity to play on the big stage that Jimmy and Freddie Frye have provided by bringing me here.

"I've been feeling good and settled of late which I put down to playing regularly and taking time to getting used to playing alongside different team-mates after such a long time at Auchinleck."

Co-boss Lindsay has warned his players to cut out defensive blunders to keep their Emirates Cup dreams alive.

He said: "We had Bo'ness watched last week in their 4-1 defeat of Dundee Violet and they have forward types in Stevie Hyslop, Declan McAvoy and Ross Donaldson who will punish any slackness on our part.

"It's a concern in the wake of how we defended in last weekend's 3-3 draw with Arthurlie because we never settled into our game at the back and the unease led to two untypical errors from keeper Stephen Robertson that cost us a couple of points.

"On the upside, Liam was absolutely magnificent particularly bombing forward on the overlap and I was delighted with our middle to front display so hopefully we can continue in the same vein and pose plenty of problems for the Bo'ness backline.

"Being involved in games of this importance is great for everyone involved with Rob Roy and you can see it reflected in the amount of supporters returning to back the club during this cup run. Bo'ness carry a huge following themselves so it promises to be a cracking atmosphere tomorrow."

Kieron McAleenan will come back into Lindsay's selection thoughts after work commitments kept the busy midfielder out of last week's trip to Barrhead allowing the Rabs chief to report a fully fit squad to choose from.

He added: "We only have a squad of 15 players. However, the quality of the guys is very high and we want it to stay that way so boosting numbers just for the sake of filling jerseys is a no-no."

Lindsay refuted terracing whispers reckoning he was on the verge of bringing in retained Rabs midfielder Thomas Sinclair who has reverted to playing amateur football.

He scoffed: "There is no truth in these stories whatsoever even though Sinky is undoubtedly a top player and I'd hazard a guess he would end up elsewhere if he did come back into the Juniors.

"We do have our eyes on a prospective new signing but any deal is looking two or three weeks away."

Bo'ness have certainly sprung a surprise in snapping up ex-Stirling Albion goalkeeper Mark Peat who is in their squad for the visit to Kirkintilloch only days after he was strongly linked with a move to Pollok.

Meanwhile, SJFA chiefs have revealed the Emirates Junior Cup quarter-final draw will be held live on the Central FM show hosted by Alan Rough and Peter Martin scheduled for this coming Tuesday at around 7.30pm.