Syngenta's Scottish Cup journey can go even further than Friday night, says club supremo Steven Allison

Having gained their Scottish FA licence in the summer, the Dyes entered the preliminary round of the competition for the first time in the club’s short history last month - and after defeating Threave Rovers 1-0, they put themselves into the draw for the first round proper.

The match against the Ayrshire outfit takes place on Friday night, with kick-off at 8pm.

"We’re playing against a team that has won the Junior Scottish Cup fourteen times, for a first round tie it couldn’t have been any bigger,” admitted the Dyes director of football Steven Allison, who was the key figure in the creation of the club’s senior footballing side.

"In this round when you look at all of the teams involved, I think it is fair to say we have drawn the hardest tie of the lot.

"Auchinleck are bringing bus loads of supporters and they might even hit over 500 fans at the game.

"It will be the biggest crowd we have ever had and it is the biggest game most of the players and staff will have been involved in.

"It will make for a great night of football, that is for sure. If we turn up and play to our best we can go through, make no mistakes about that.

"If we could then you can really start dreaming. It is a total free hit for us.”

Allison, who joined the club in 2019, reckons the team were weeks away from folding altogether before he got invovled.

Back then, the Dyes took part in an amateur league system after failing to gain entry into the East of Scotland leagues.

The Grangemouth club’s juvenile section was what Syngenta was really know for in the Falkirk area, and it still is to this day to a large extent.

"The club was on the verge of folding truth be told,” Allison admitted.

“We didn’t have anything in place. We played at Dunipace’s ground but we never had things like a physio or a kit-man and we had to start from the very start.

"There was no wage structure or bank account, it really was starting something up from nothing.

"When you look at us now we have a real strong team and that is the key. They are the ones who deserve all the credit for our success, not me.

"We used to be known for just our juveniles and it was hard to attract players to a club most guys hadn’t even heard about before, but that isn’t the case now.”

After a whirlwind start to life as a senior club, he also reckons that the sky is the limit for the Dyes.

They won promotion at the first time of asking last term, finishing second in the bottom tier to win passage into the newly-formed Second Division.

“The club can get to league football,” Allison said.

"If people keep working hard then it is possible, with a wee bit of luck along the way.

"We have a limited budget so we aren’t going to be able to do a Kelty Hearts or a FC Edinburgh but we can still have that aspiration.

"At the moment we are probably four years down the line into our ten year plan which was created when we came into the club, so the progress has been remarkable.

"This season in the league we have performed very well and the manager Gordon Wylde likes to play things down, but he knows that everything is going extremely well.

"He is a brilliant manager and he has that experience from being involved in the game at a higher level. Our recruitment has to be perfect and I would say so far we have managed to do that just about.

"The way we lost the league title last season on goal difference was sore but I think it has given the team that wee bit of fire that they don’t want that to happen again.

"If we lose out on a league title this time around it will be on points and not on goals.”

Allison will be on the bench on Friday night alongside boss Wylde, and he admits it will be hard not to just take it all in when the teams come out onto the pitch.

"At the Threave Rovers match it was brilliant to see so many supporters in the main stand across from us,” he said.

"The crowd that night was outstanding for a club of our size and the good thing is that it is full of youngsters involved throughout Syngenta at all age levels.

"It was full of families and the atmosphere was just fantastic. On Friday night I will probably have a moment just to take in how far we have come in a short space of time.”

If Syngenta progress on Friday, they would be in the hat for the second round draw, which could see them face SPFL League Two opposition.