Paul Lovering is adamant in insisting that familiarity will not breed contempt when he leads his Benburb side down to face Port Glasgow in one of the more intriguing Scottish Junior Cup openers on Saturday.

The first-season Junior boss freely admits the first-round draw pairing of the Central Second Division rivals is not to his liking.

Indeed, he points to a 3-3 draw earlier this season as hard evidence of the sides being very evenly matched.

And a glance at the league table only adds further credence to his viewpoint with last weekend’s 4-1 triumph over Glasgow Perthshire edging the Bens one point ahead of the Port who succumbed to a 4-1 beating at the hands of joint tabletoppers Gartcairn.

The one-time Airdrie stalwart said: "The romance of the cup is to be found going up against clubs from other regions for the first time, particularly when it involves taking long treks away from home which can be hugely beneficial in terms of team-bonding .

“By comparison, there is always an edge in landing an opponent from your own division and more so when I think back to the tough dress-rehearsal we experienced down at Parklea in our opening league game of the season.

“Twice they had their noses in front - the second time after being reduced to ten men - but we fought back to lead 3-2 and really should have seen the game out but for conceding an avoidable late equaliser.

“Ours is a relatively young playing squad – average age 22 years – comprising mainly of players who have stepped up this season from the Under-21 juvenile and amateur ranks.

"But a few lessons were learned that day, which I’d like to think will have been taken on board to stand us in good stead for the cup tie.

“For certain our guys are aware that Port Glasgow have decent players who are well capable of causing problems unless we are at the very top of our game.”

Benburb are boosted on the team front by the return of Simon Marriot and goalkeeper Robert Tiropoulos even though the experienced No.1 faces a fight to take back the gloves from stand-in deputy Scott Somerville.

But gaffer Lovering has been forced to go without suspended ace Ryan Monan and he has taken the decision to rule out highly-rated Steven Greer, who is on the treatment table ever since tearing ligaments in a pre-season match with Ardrossan Winton Rovers.

This despite the accomplished central defender being hell bent on declaring himself fit for the Scottish Cup encounter.

Lovering said: “Steven’s desire to be involved is understandable and I too desperately want him back in the team but he will only make his injury worse by coming back too early and I happen to think the Cup tie is coming a week or two early for him.

“Anyway the lads are high on confidence after our convincing win over the Shire which was marked by two outstanding goals from midfielder Gary Duggan as well as some terrific wing play from young Paul Carr and I’d gladly settle for those two serving up repeat displays.

“But being honest we need more than a couple of players to step up to the mark if we’re to come away with the right result down there.”

Port Glasgow manager Craig Brown reflected back on the early season meeting of the clubs.

He recalled: "I cannot accept it was a psychological win for ourselves just because we played for fully 45 minutes with ten men and with a trialist goalkeeper between the posts.

“More to the point is Benburb proved they are a much improved team, especially going forward where they had the best player afield in Ryan Livingston who ran the show from midfield so we’ll be thinking over steps to curb his influence.

“Another factor to take into account is the changes made to both ours and Benburb’s starting line-ups from that last game as Paul has introduced at least three newcomers while Michael Fulton has walked away from our club and Kevin Mackay will not be taking part after being placed on the open to transfer list.”

Mackay, formerly on the books of Greenock, was one of three Port players sent off against Gartcairn last Saturday.

However, Bruno revealed the dismissals of his other errant sinners, Jamie McKenna and Steven McAfee, were a result of double yellow card offences so both players are available for selection.

The long-serving Port gaffer added: "We’ve yet to win a game on our Astro grass surface this season and I can think of no better time to put that right.”

The remaining second division sides involved on cup duty include Vale of Leven whose recording just one win in four Millburn Park starts does not augur well for Hughie Hammill’s men making home advantage tell against Fife visitors Kennoway Star Hearts.

Feeling more upbeat about his side’s cup prospects is East Kilbride Thistle boss Billy Campbell ahead of a Show Park contest with East Region outfit Armadale Thistle .

He said: “I had Armadale watched in losing 5-1 to Lochee United last Saturday and they are a big and physically strong team who are very direct in playing the ball from back to front.

“They also had someone running the rule over ourselves against Royal Albert and I’m sure our performance will have provided plenty of food for thought.

“Our strikers Alan McFadden and Craig Miles continued their rich vein of scoring form while Mark Bishop and Liam Sloan provided us with a solid defensive core and our overall pattern of play is encouraging.”