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SportCup CompetitionsJohn Potter prepares to do battle with brother Brian as Dunfermline take...

John Potter prepares to do battle with brother Brian as Dunfermline take on Hamilton Accies in Scottish Cup

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JOHN Potter has an extra special reason for craving a Dunfermline victory against Hamilton on Saturday – brother Brian is Accies’ goalkeeping coach.

The siblings are close but have done their best to avoid each other in the build up to the Scottish Cup fifth round tie.

At a family gathering last weekend, football was deemed strictly off limits.

John Potter in his playing days with St Mirren (Pic: Alasdair Middleton)

But John admits that whoever comes out on top tomorrow will be all too ready to talk about the game.

And the Pars first-team coach is desperate to be the one with plenty to say as the East End Park outfit seek their first Scottish Cup quarter-final in eight years.

He told @CCP_sport: “We’ll not be meeting up or chatting about the teams or talking about the game.

“Both of us are really busy, working a lot of nights and so on. We do try to meet up and we chat about football when we do.

“But it was a bit of a conscious decision to not talk about football before this game.

“Both of us are very professional. I saw him on Sunday night for a bit but that’s been it.

“I’ll see him again on Saturday and we’re looking forward to it.

“I normally spend time up in the stand at games, to give us a different perspective, but I’ll maybe come down to the dugouts to give Brian stick, depending on how the game goes.

“There will be a couple of calls on Saturday night, certainly if it’s me that’s on the right side of the result.

“It will be a tough game but both of us will be thinking it’s a good chance to go and progress to the next round in the cup.”

WORKAHOLIC

The brothers worked together for a spell at Dunfermline but Brian was in a part-time role and wanted to go full-time with Accies when the opportunity came to return to the Lanarkshire outfit in 2015.

When they were growing up John welcomed Brian’s skills as a goalkeeper, but he is hopeful the New Douglas Park coach’s charges have an off day between the sticks tomorrow.

John added: “Brian’s two and a half years older than me and we always played football together when we were younger.

“He usually went in goals, which was quite handy because its normally hard to find a goalie!

“Brian was great when he was here at Dunfermline. He’s very good at his job and he’s a workaholic.

“But he got the chance to go back to Hamilton. He was there before and it was a full-time post, and he loves it.

“He’s very well thought of and happy there. He enjoys the job and loves the club.

“He’s still a Dunfermline fan, though, but I’m sure he’ll be wanting Hamilton to win on Saturday.”

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