A GRADUATE of the Swifts pathway believes that tomorrow's East of Scotland Qualifying Cup final is important in helping inspire the next generation of stars.

Owen Reid began his footballing journey with the club at the age of five, and has gone on to help their senior team have the chance to lift their first-ever trophy when they take on Dunbar United.

When the 20-year-old first started with the Swifts, they were a club that had been formed with a vision to allow girls and boys the opportunity to play football in a fun and safe environment.

That remains the case - they have hundreds of members throughout a variety of age groups - but, in 2018, they decided to form a senior team to give their rising stars the chance of playing senior football.

"When I was really small, and my dad's always been involved in the club, we didn't have a senior team," Reid said.

"It's good to see how much the club's grown to get this chance in a cup final.

"It's been really good to come through as part of it because it's just proof of what people are saying, that they're trying to get people starting from young, and getting a chance against Dunbar in a cup final, when they've been with the club their whole life, it just shows what they can do if they stick with the club.

"It makes it more special. It's not as if I've just came in for a few months - I've really got sentimental value with the club and motivation to go and do good for the club.

"Rather than just for myself, I want it for the club, for us to win the final and compete well.

"They are arranging a few buses for the younger people in the club to come along. That's the main thing about the Swifts - they want to get the player pathway from all the younger people getting through the club.

"That's what we tend to do. We get people coming through and that's why we have a young team. It's also good to have these slightly older people with more experience, like Deasy (Callum Deas, club captain), to put the younger ones in line when we're starting to misbehave a wee bit!

"It'll be good to have all the younger ones come along and watch so they can aspire to what the club can give them if they stick with it."

On the final itself, Reid added: "We've had past games against Dunbar. We've lost against them twice.

"As you'll have seen in the semi-final, we played Broxburn two weeks before, and we lost 5-2 to them, but after that game we studied them and we were able to take that into the semi-final, where we managed to hold out and beat them 2-0.

"Hopefully we can do the same thing against Dunbar."