A weekend off was not welcome at Formartine United as Highland League teams begin their annual week-to-week battle with the elements.
Formartine’s trip to Keith last Saturday was one of two league clashes which were rained off, and assistant manager Russell Anderson is hoping they can avoid further postponements and a fixture backlog as the wintry weather takes hold in the weeks ahead.
He said: “The issue with losing games is you end up finding yourself with a fixture backlog later in the season, so it’s never ideal.
“You would rather play, but we managed to get a good session done on Saturday.
“From that point of view we made the best of the situation. We’d have preferred to play, but there’s nothing we can do about that.
“It’s always something you’re battling with when it comes to this time of the season. You’re constantly looking at weather forecasts for the next few months to be honest.
“It should be fine for this weekend, so we just have to make the most of it in terms of dealing with the conditions, whether it’s over head or under foot.
“It’ll be good to get back out there on Saturday.”
The seventh-placed North Lodge Park outfit host eighth-placed Deveronvale this weekend.
Even with victory, the Banffers cannot leapfrog Formartine in the table, but Anderson wants to see them increase their current seven-point advantage over the visitors.
Goals could certainly be on the agenda – Formartine beat Turriff United 5-0 in their last league game, while the Vale beat Lossiemouth 6-0.
Anderson – who isn’t expecting his team to have any fresh injury concerns – added: “I hope one team will be scoring goals.
“We’ve played them already this season and it was a competitive game, and it was tight for the majority of it. It wasn’t until later on we were a bit more comfortable.
“So we know it is going to be an extremely difficult game and they will probably fancy their chances.
“We’re going to have to be at the top of our game.
“It doesn’t matter where you are in the league. If you’re playing against someone who is directly above you or below you, there’s always that incentive for the team to try to leapfrog them or extend that points difference.
“That’ll be no different on Saturday. They’ll see it as an opportunity to get closer to us in the league, and we’ll try to build on the last league performance and win, and add to the points total.”
Craig Stewart looking for same performance levels from Vale’s last league outing
Deveronvale have won on their last two outings, both at Princess Royal Park against Lossiemouth.
Their comprehensive 6-0 win came two weekends ago, before a far-tighter 1-1 draw then penalty shoot-out victory in the Highland League Cup preliminary round last Saturday.
Although he was pleased with the Vale’s resilience after going 1-0 down on cup duty, boss Craig Stewart thinks the “full performance” from the week before is required to compete with the Highland League’s top teams, including Formartine.
He said: “I’d love to have the first week’s performance and would go as far to say that, if we produced that week in, week out, I think we’d be in a much better position in the league. Even though I’m happy with where we are at the moment, if we produced that every week, we’d be much higher up the table, that’s for sure.
“It’s one thing we’ve not really done this season, is compete with those teams above us.
“There’s been a few games where have competed for spells, but ultimately we’ve conceded poor goals or not taken our chances when we’ve been on top in the games.
“That’s what we need to do, starting this weekend. The boys go into it confident, although we will miss the couple of players we’ve got out.”
Defender James Connelly is suspended, having been sent off in the cup last weekend, while talismanic forward Dane Ballard is a doubt.