For Doune Castle to be searching for the Holy Grail is a Pythonesque twist to a familiar tale. The imposing citadel, after all, was featured heavily in the eponymous quest committed to film by the Monty Python team in the 1970s.

The Stirlingshire fort was depicted as the Grail's supposed home but now the football team of the same name are striving to attain their own piece of coveted silverware when they contest the UEFA Regions Cup. A party of 21 will travel to Alessandria near Turin tomorrow to represent Scotland in three matches against other amateurs from Italy, England and the Republic of Ireland, with the top side in the section competing in the eight-team finals next summer.

Their task is set amid a climate of Scottish underachievement in continental combat this season and is compounded by the composition of their opponents. The other sides are all regional selects playing under national banners, while Doune Castle are a Caledonian League team in the guise of Scotland.

"The Italians have won the competition before and the definition of an amateur in Italy and one here is a wee bit lost in translation," admits Willie Docherty, the club secretary. "We're expecting a high standard but we're playing at a good level here and you just never know."

Doune won the right to represent their country after emerging from a qualifying process entered by dint of winning the East of Scotland amateur cup last year. That success was the culmination of Alan Campbell's debut campaign as manager after several years as a coach and player and has set the bar high for the 40-year-old surveyor.

"Aye, no pressure after that start," he mutters. "The other teams might be technically superior but because they are regional selects they'll not have the same spirit that we've got - boys who will all go out on nights out in fancy dress - so we've got that to our advantage."

Doune's chances are also aided by the presence in the party of an SFA support staff, including a physio, doctor and match coordinator. More importantly, however, has been the involvement of Andy Gould, the SFA head of regional development, who has worked with the players since pre-season and hosted a gathering at Largs last weekend.

While Campbell still holds his title, he freely admits to having deferred some of his authority. Gould believes the adaptable squad of 18 players - shorn of a Hungarian duo who played semi-pro in their homeland and a masters student who could not travel - should adopt a fluid system based on a 4-5-1 template to compensate for the technical limitations and will work with the manager to identify the correct cogs on arrival in Italy.

"We're on a level pegging now because Andy's got so much experience," Campbell confesses. "I was out with the notepad at Largs and my only concern is living up to it when we come back. The preparations have been so thorough, right down to Powerpoint presentations about diet, and I could feel the confidence growing in the boys over the weekend."

The belief was burnished when the squad were handed their Scotland kit. "I think that brought it home," admits Campbell of a group that includes a German full-back whose commitment to the cause is manifest in a tattoo of a Thistle on his left leg. "They were quite nervous in training on the Saturday and you could tell that a few of them were realising jee-so, I'm representing Scotland' but soon you could see that pulling on the jersey made them all feel about 10ft tall."

Such is their newly discovered professionalism, the players have taken to walking around with waterbottles at all times and even foregoing post-match pints. "I need to try and behave myself as well," says Docherty, a 47-year-old fireman whose association with his home town team stretches back well over 20 years. " But the boys are no mugs and know what's at sake. They don't want to come back and be on the front page of the papers."

The secretary does hope, however, that their exploits can attain some publicity for a game he thinks is being neglected. Increasing overheads and a lack of decent facilities have beset the amateur ranks for years and will leave Doune at a disadvantage over the next seven days. The Scottish Parliament have held discussions over the issue time and again but little real progress appears to have been made.

"The SFA took over the organisation and paid for everything once we qualified so it's nice to get back some of the money we've given them over the years," Docherty says. "I wish it was like that every week. You could phone 100 guys who are involved in amateur football and they would all tell you that their main complaint is a lack of facilities but how we go about fixing it I don't know."

That, though, is for another day. For the official party and their dozen travelling supporters, all that matters this week is the three matches. "For any amateur team, the ambition is to get to the Scottish Cup final at Hampden, which we've not done since 1970," says Campbell. "But next week goes beyond that for me because we're representing our country. It's a once in a lifetime chance . . . unless we win it, then we'll be doing it all again next summer."

Then the search for the Holy Grail will really begin.