City take a four-game winning streak away from home into a crucial Active Nation third round clash at Albion Rovers.

Ross Jack's men are unbeaten in their last five away games and victory at Coatbridge tomorrow would put them into the fourth-round hat with all the SPL big guns.

Their away form is in stark contrast to results at home where Elgin are without a win in seven third division games, although they have two cup wins to their name at Borough Briggs, including a 3-0 Alba Cup victory over tomorrow's opponents.

However, Rovers won 2-0 in a league game at Elgin in October so honours are even going into one of the biggest games of the season.

Despite their good form on the road, City boss Ross Jack knows the challenge his side faces before anyone can contemplate a possible fourth round payday that would come with a good draw against an SPL side.

"Albion Rovers haven't lost many goals and I think they have kept 10 clean sheets already which is quite remarkable," he said.

"We beat them 3-0 at home in the cup and it was quite comfortable, but they also beat us 2-0 at our place in the league.

"We have shown we can beat them, so we will go into the game with confidence. We are undefeated in five away games so that is good form to go into a cup tie."

Rovers lost 2-0 to third division leaders Livingston on Tuesday night in a game postponed from Saturday due to a waterlogged pitch.

While Jack will urge the players to win for professional pride and their own chances of pitting their wits against possible SPL opposition, he admitted that a Scottish Cup jackpot could benefit possible team strengthening in January.

"I won't go down to Albion Rovers thinking only of the finances, but it is at the back of my mind and it could be to my benefit if we win as I might get some money to strengthen when the transfer window opens," he said.

"We need to win for a number of reasons, finance is one of them. It is tie that we can win and Albion will be thinking the same. We have pace in our team and that can cause them problems.

Elgin's Graham Tatters (right) tries to find a way round Ian Harty as Forfar win 2-0 at Borough Briggs on Saturday. RC

"It would be fantastic to get a mouth-watering tie against one of the big boys if we get through. We saw what it did to Forfar last year drawing Rangers at home. I think that set them up for a couple of seasons financially."

Elgin went down 2-0 last Saturday to an experienced Forfar side and despite taking just two points from seven home league games, Jack is convinced they are not far away from making the breakthrough.

"Saturday shows just how far we have come this season. The expectation is that we should be beating Forfar at home, a team tipped to win the league or at the very least be in the play-offs.

"For 37 minutes, until they scored, we were as good as them. They had more possession in the second half and overall were better.

"The effort was certainly there but sometimes our technique lets us down. We will get it right and we are not that far away," added Jack.

And the manager certainly doesn't subscribe to the theory that a cup run is an unwanted complication.

"You hear a lot of managers saying when they go out of the cup that they can now concentrate on the league. However, we desperately want to be involved in the cup for as long as we can. There is a lot of money involved and it can also help give us momentum in the league," he said.

Flu was the main concern this week ahead of the game with a number of players struggling with a bug, most notably top scorer Craig Gunn.

Neil McDonald, Jake Inglis and Michael Dunn were also affected earlier in the week but Jack was hoping to avoid flu sweeping through the squad. Teenager defender Dunn was also struggling with an ankle injury which forced him to pull out of the squad last weekend following the pre-match warm up.

Experienced defender Paul Kaczan also went through his paces before the game as he recovers from injury but kicking the ball remained a problem for the player and it is doubtful whether he will be fit enough to come back into the squad at Coatbridge.

David Craig snr's knee injury is still proving problematic and he is unlikely to come into the reckoning for the game.

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