Formartine’s title campaign which faltered a few weeks back against Wick now seems to be forlorn and fading as fast as stonewashed denim.
With the exception of Brora who seem almost invincible at the moment (although we did battle our way past the equine Munro and Tokely to share the points with them at Dudgeon Park) we remain fairly handily placed alongside Locos, Wick and Turriff in the battle for what most people would see as the runners up competition.
Look a bit closer though and the position seems just a tad more precarious: the worrying thing is that we have now lost to Wick at home and Turriff away and losing to the teams around you is, in this league, a sure fire ticket to a downward trip.
What needs to be fixed is a tendency to lose goals early on and the fact that we struggle against teams that are not necessarily as well supplied with skill and pace as ourselves but who are simply prepared to get wired in and get in to the faces of our fairly expensively assembled squad.
When that happens, as for example against Vale, we clearly struggle.
I sometimes wonder about the difference between players entering SHFL from higher levels – unable or unwilling for whatever reason to cut it or continue at the original level – and those who get to SHFL from Juniors or amateurs and who have had to battle their way up through the ranks to get there.
Of course horses for courses comes into it but if you are looking for players to battle it out for you to get a result when the chips are down, which would you turn to first?