60,000 Screaming Bhoys? Nah, watch the Challenge Cup.

By: Ian Rose | August 17th, 2009

All of Glasgow … well, half of Glasgow … will be going insane tomorrow, as Arsenal come to visit Celtic in the first leg of the Champions League playoff round. Good luck to Celtic, by the way. Let’s hope the Gunners got their week’s total of goals on Saturday. As for the Caley Thistle, we have a somewhat … how you say … calmer cup match in store for Tuesday. Although, there are parallels. We’re at home. The visiting team is from south of us. Yeah, that’s about where the comparison ends.

While Tony Mowbray and the Celts take on a team that scored six goals away from home in the Premier League this weekend, we’ll be entertaining Stranraer FC in a second-round Alba Challenge Cup match in the cozy confines of Caledonian Stadium. I actually have a soft spot for Stranraer. They’re one of the oldest active league sides in Scotland, and have fallen, like so many lower-league teams, onto very hard financial times. In January, the chairman of the club gave them 50/50 chances of making it through the season, and an effort was started to raise the money needed to get them out of debt. If they were playing anyone else, I’d love to see them go through and make a dent in that debt.

But they are not playing someone else – they are playing my Caley. To make up for my heartless wish that we beat this gray lady of Scottish football to a pulp at one of her weaker moments, I do encourage anyone with a few quid burning a hole in their pockets to click over to SaveStranraerFC.com and make a donation. In fact, I’ll do you one better – I’ll donate a tenner for every Caley Thistle goal tomorrow. Least I can do for a club that’s existed for 139 years.

Mon the Caley.