Tony Dingwall believes Brora Rangers can show their potential as Breedon Highland League title contenders by beating Brechin City in today’s top of the table clash.
But Euan Spark is determined to open up a 10-point lead for the Hedgemen at the summit of the division.
The Highland League’s top two meet at Glebe Park this afternoon with Brechin seven points in front of Brora having played a game more.
The Cattachs finished sixth last season, but with Steven Mackay returning as manager in the summer and overseeing a squad revamp they have made no secret of their desire to challenge for the title again.
‘A massive game’
Winger Dingwall, 30, said: “We’ve got aspirations to try to win the league. If we want to do that we need to beat the best teams and Brechin are sitting top of the league right now.
“There’s no hiding that it’s a massive game for us. I don’t think you can say it’s a must-win game at this stage of the season, but it feels like a must not lose game at least, although we certainly want to win it.
“We do have a game in hand, but if we lose the gap will be 10 points and then we’d be needing a lot of favours to try to catch up.
“It’s a massive game for both sides. We don’t hide that we want to be challenging to win the league and the last couple of seasons probably haven’t been good enough in that regard.
“We all know that, we’ve won cups which has been good, but our league form hasn’t been good enough before this season.
“If we could get a win against Brechin I think it sends out a statement to the rest of the league about what we can do.”
Brechin aim to bolster advantage
This game pits the Highland League’s best defence against the best attack.
Brora have scored 48 times in 12 outings, but centre-back Spark has been part of a Brechin rearguard that has conceded only five goals in 13 fixtures.
The 27-year-old says City have all the incentives they need to try to shut out their latest opponent.
Spark added: “These are the games you want to play in and the carrot is there for us in terms of having the chance to go 10 points ahead.
“I don’t think there’s any other team at any level that has the chance to go that far ahead at this stage.
“If we could move 10 points clear then it would be a very good position to be in.
“If we can keep another clean sheet that would be massive. For the back four and the goalkeeper that’s what we’re aiming to do every week.
“We know it will be difficult, but we’ll do our best to try to keep a clean sheet and hopefully come full-time we’re 10 points clear.
“We’re not reading too much into it being the top scorers versus the best defence.
“I think our record in all areas speaks for itself, we’re still unbeaten and we take confidence from the fact no team has got the better of us so far.”
News from around the Highland League
Elsewhere, Banks o’ Dee are missing Kane Winton and Mark Gilmour for Rothes’ visit to Spain Park. The Speysiders are without Greg Morrison, Ben Johnstone, Allen Mackenzie, Gregor MacDonald, Martin MacKinnon, Brodie Mitchell, Owen Alexander, Fraser Russell and Samuel Adams.
Buckie Thistle welcome Forres Mechanics to Victoria Park. Darryl McHardy is suspended for the Jags with Kyle MacLeod and Charlie Macdonald out for the Can-Cans.
Gavin Morrison is Clachnacuddin’s only absentee for the Grant Street Park encounter with Turriff United. Callan Gray, Ewan Clark, Jack McKenzie, Max Foster, Arran Smith, Keir Smith and James Chalmers are unavailable for Turra.
Formartine United are without Julian Wade, Kieran Adams, Kieran Lawrence and Daniel Park for their game against Deveronvale at North Lodge Park. Sean McIntosh, Kyle Dalling and Joel Wiseman are missing for the Banffers.
Dylan Maclean and Alan Pollock are out for Nairn County’s Station Park clash with Fraserburgh. Greg Buchan, Connor Wood and Lewis Davidson are the Broch’s absentees.
Strathspey Thistle boss Ryan Esson will give fitness tests to a number of players ahead of facing Inverurie Locos at Seafield Park. Paul Coutts, Greg Mitchell, Calum Duncan, Zane Laird, Anton Chauvin and Josh Buchan won’t feature for the Railwaymen.
Scorries aim to losing run at Lossie
Wick Academy boss Gary Manson is aiming to end their barren run at Grant Park when they tackle Lossiemouth today.
The Scorries have lost on their last three visits to Lossie and have also been defeated in their last five matches in all competitions.
But Manson has been encouraged by Wick’s performances.
He said: “It’s fair to say Grant Park hasn’t been our favourite venue in the last few years.
“But it’s got to change some time and hopefully we can buck that trend in this game.
“When you look at every season you want to improve your points total from the previous campaign.
“We got beat at Lossie last season, so if we could win this game that would be an improvement from last season.
“We’ve had a tough run of fixtures, this is our eighth away game in 10.
“However, it’s certainly not doom and gloom from my perspective. If we weren’t competing and losing every game convincingly then I’d be a lot more concerned.
“But some of the things I’ve seen in recent games have been really good.
“We’re playing reasonably well so if we keep doing that the law of averages says we should come out on top eventually.”
Lossiemouth have lost their last three matches in all competitions and assistant manager Ian Campbell thinks they need to tighten up defensively.
The Coasters have kept two clean sheets this term and Campbell added: “We defended quite well last week against Huntly, but we switched off twice and conceded two goals.
“That’s an issue we need to address, we’ve only kept two clean sheets this season and that needs to change.
“We’ve got a strong enough squad, but we need to show a bit more quality.”
Grant doesn’t want purple patch to end
Huntly’s Angus Grant is in no mood to relinquish his position at the top of the goalscoring charts.
Ahead of the Black and Golds’ Breedon Highland League clash with Keith at Kynoch Park today the striker has notched 17 goals in all competitions.
Grant bagged a brace in Wednesday’s Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup semi-final triumph against Buckie Thistle and north football’s leading marksman doesn’t want to let up.
The 26-year-old said: “Ever since I’ve been in the Highland League top scorer is something I’ve looked at.
“I’ve never been close to it, but it’s something any striker wants to achieve and it’s something strikers always look at.
“You want to be playing and you want to be scoring goals. Right now every game I play I fancy myself to score a goal.
“My target is to get to 20 goals as soon as I can and then try to take off again. As top scorer at the moment I’d like to stay there as long as I can.”
Both boxes hold the key for Maroons
Keith are sitting 16th in the table after a five-match winless run in the league.
Maroons manager Craig Ewen said: “We have to find a way of improving in both boxes.
“We need to take more of our chances when we get them and we also need to keep the back door shut.
“We’ve been having issues at both ends. We’re the second lowest in the league in terms of goals scored and we’re fifth most for goals conceded.
“If we get a positive performance we’ll take it from there, but we’re at the wrong end of the table just now and we’d like to try to rectify that.
“Things need to improve, but if we can learn from our mistakes they will.”
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