Champions Cove Rangers’ defender Stirling Smith knows his side is a target.
The Aberdeen side have yet to hit their straps this season and the former Aberdeen player is preparing for another difficult afternoon when strugglers Strathspey Thistle visit Allan Park this afternoon.
The 22-year-old, now in his third year of studies for a mechanical engineering degree at Robert Gordon University, said: “Strathspey are more than capable of sitting in to frustrate us. This season has been a mixed bag, we haven’t made the start we wanted and haven’t picked up as many points as we would have liked.
“Our performances have picked up in recent weeks. We should have won up at Brora in the Scottish Cup, although they beat us in the replay. Winning the title once was great but we’re keen to retain it, which makes our start to the season even harder to take.”
Smith is delighted veteran attacker Martin Johnston has returned to the club on a month’s contract. He added: “We lost a lot of players in the summer so it was always going to be difficult. But we are all delighted Martin is back.”
Strathspey manager Brian Grant hopes his side have learned the lessons of last season’s trip to Cove when they were 3-0 down after five minutes.
He said: “We will try to frustrate Cove, just like Rothes did to us last weekend, when we were the better side, had most of the game and still lost.”