Turriff United manager Dean Donaldson expects to face a fired-up Inverurie Locos at the Haughs.
The Railwaymen were knocked out of the Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield by Huntly in midweek and Donaldson knows they’ll be eager to return to winning ways in the Breedon Highland League.
United may be sitting second bottom, but Donaldson took encouragement from their display in defeat to Buckie Thistle last weekend after playing 89 minutes with 10 men.
He said: “We’re expecting a reaction from Inverurie, but we played really well against Buckie with 10 men last weekend.
“Ethan Smith is suspended and Jordan Cooper is ineligible because he’s on loan from Inverurie, but apart from that hopefully everyone else should be fine.
“Nobody will expect us to get anything, we know that Locos have got quality and they’re very dangerous.
“The boys gave us everything last week and we had two or three chances when it was 0-0.”
Railwaymen aim to respond
Inverurie boss Richard Hastings added: “We have to look for a response, we need to get the Huntly game out of our system as soon as we can.
“It was massively disappointing on Wednesday, but the nature of the game and how it happened sometimes it’s out of your control.
“I couldn’t fault the boys because I felt they’d done enough to win the game, but some things are out of your control.
“It’s hard to take, but we’ve got to focus on Turriff now.”
Elsewhere, fifth-placed Brechin City have a fully-fit squad for their clash with eighth-placed Deveronvale.
The Banffers are aiming to be the first visiting side to leave Glebe Park with three points this season.