Inverurie Locos boss Dean Donaldson say they are keen to have their Breedon Highland League championship say at home to leaders Brechin City on Wednesday – and wants his players to get used to the pressure to win over the closing weeks.
With five matches of their campaign left, the Railwaymen gaffer believes putting a bit of pressure on his young squad to finish as high as possible this term could be good experience for their own potential title tilt next term.
With Locos currently fourth, in what has been a much-improved campaign, it is certainly not out of the question for them to reel in third-placed Banks o’ Dee before the season is through.
Ahead of Brechin’s visit to Harlaw Park, Donaldson said: “I think all my players will be looking forward to the game.
“We’re off the back of eight wins, so we’re obviously in form.
“But we’re under no illusions – it’ll be a difficult game against Brechin.
“Ray McKinnon’s come in and got them set up well, so it’s going to be a challenge – especially because at least half of our team have probably never played in these kind of (pivotal) games before.
“We aren’t getting carried away, because we were on a run of three or four defeats, or three or four games without wins – we were drawing games – every game is really tough and I generally don’t want to put that pressure on the boys.
“But at the same time, over this next few weeks, I want them to be in this environment where they feel it (the pressure to win matches), because I want them to be challenging at some point.
“So it’s kind of a Catch-22.
“I want them to feel it on Wednesday night, because it could be a game next season where, if we get a bit of luck and we’re up there, it could be a game that we might need to win.”
Inverurie will be without Anton Chauvin and skipper Greg Mitchell – who has a suspected ACL injury – for the Brechin game.
Brechin skipper Spark on ticking off wins after ‘horrific’ shoulder ordeal
A 2-0 win at title-rivals Brora Rangers on Saturday restored the Angus club to the Highland League summit, and, with six matches to go, their captain Euan Spark knows they must continue to “check” victories “off”.
Defender Spark said: “It was so important we went up and got three points and that’s what we did.
“I don’t think it was pretty. We’ve played a lot better this season – but it’s three points, a clean sheet, two goals and it put us back to the top of the league, so it’s brilliant.
“If you look at a couple of years ago when we won the league, it was just grinding out results.
“We keep saying we just need to check them off.
“We’ve got six games left. Saturday was a massive one, but we’ve got six other ones the same, and it doesn’t matter what we’ve done if we go and lose the next one. So we need to keep going and carry it on.
“Inverurie is another tough game, so we need to go and kick on and get another result.”
Skipper Spark returned to the Brechin fold at the weekend after eight weeks out injured following a shoulder dislocation.
He admits it was “agony” watching his side’s title challenge falter from the sidelines during his recovery, with boss Patrick Cregg dismissed and interim manager McKinnon replacing him.
McKinnon has now led to City to three victories from his three matches in charge, and Spark revealed he avoided an operation on his hurt shoulder – which was finally popped back in after a “horrific” three-hour effort at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital – so he could be back fit in time to play his part at a “crucial time in the season”.
Spark said: “I probably had the option to go for an operation when I did it, and that would’ve seen my season out for nine months.
“So it’s been a lot of hard work getting my shoulder sorted, a lot of rehab.
“I trained on Tuesday and that was the first time I’ve trained.”
James Wallace: Nothing but positivity at Brora Rangers
Brora – three points behind Brechin in the standings, with both sides having played 28 matches – travel to Keith on Wednesday night, and James Wallace is determined to rack up a run of six season-ending wins in their own title bid.
He said: “There’s still a long way to go.
“Both teams (Brora and Brechin) have slipped up all year and no team’s gone on a really, really impressive run.
“There’s still a lot of football to play. We’ve six games – we’ll try to win them all and see where it takes us.”
Saturday’s battle with rivals Brechin left forward Wallace frustrated.
He said: “We were seriously disappointed. When you top it off with last week as well (3-2 defeat at Buckie Thistle), we wanted a big response against Brechin.
“I didn’t think there was much in the game at all, but like Sid (Brora boss Steven Mackay) said – it was two minutes of madness. There first goal was an absolute freak, which we wanted to respond to, but they go and get a second quickly and it’s a seriously uphill battle from there.
“We huffed and puffed, but never really created too much.”
At Kynoch Park on Wednesday, however, the Cattachs will be back in a positive mindset – and looking for revenge against their hosts (who lost 7-0 to Huntly at the weekend) for a shock Dudgeon Park defeat earlier this term.
Wallace, who has returned from a spell on the sidelines with a hip problem, said: “It probably makes it a bit trickier, because they (Keith) will want to bounce back as well.
“We’ve got a wrong to make right, because they done us up in Brora earlier in the season.
“We’ll go again – nothing but positivity!
Keith keeper unlikely to play again this season
Meanwhile, Keith boss Craig Ewen – whose side still have eight matches to play this term – expects to be without first-choice goalie Craig Reid for the rest of the campaign.
Reid dislocated a shoulder and suffered a suspected fracture to the joint in the first half against Huntly, with 18-year-old Connor MacLeod back from a loan at junior side Colony Park and expected to fill the posts for the Maroons in the weeks ahead.
Ewen said: “He’s a young lad. He’s probably made four starts for Keith now – but they’ve been Formartine away, Fraserburgh away, Brora away, Locos away, so he does know what he’ll be expecting.
“He’ll be fine.”
Keith also had Ryan Robertson sent off against Huntly, and his absence, along with Reid’s, has compounded an injury struggle manager Ewen has had to contend with all season.
Simply looking for a “positive” performance against high-flying Brora, he said: “You hope to win as many games as you can, but it seems like right now, where maybe other teams have started to get players back, I’m just not in that position.
“I haven’t really complained too much this season, but I probably should have done.
“There’s not been one game where we’ve had less than five boys unavailable the whole season – it’s just been different players.
“The missing list for Wednesday is Callum Robertson, Craig Gill, James Brownie, Murray Addison, Craig Reid, Zane Laird, Ryan Robertson, Joey Wilson.
“And out of the guys on the bench, there’ll be probably three that are carrying knocks out of five available outfield players.
“It’s probably been the worst year I’ve had in terms of injuries over my Keith management.”
News from around the Highland League
There are four other matches in the Highland League on Wednesday evening, with bottom side Rothes hosting Lossiemouth, who are six points and two places above them.
The Coasters will travel with a few under-18s players in their squad, with Oli Hodgson suspended, and injuries to Connor Macaulay and Matty Nicol.
Fraserburgh take on Turriff United at Bellslea.
The Broch will be without the injured Aidan Sopel and Liam Strachan.
Turriff will be without Owen Kinsella, Ewan Clark, Ewen Robertson, Andy Watt, Reece McKeown, Keir Smith, James Chalmers and Lee Herbert, with doubts over John Allan and Connor Grant.
Huntly travel to Strathspey Thistle at full strength – bar the the absent Ruari Fraser, who is out for the rest of the season.
Finally, Buckie Thistle welcome Deveronvale to Victoria Park. Vale player-boss Garry Wood can return to the dugout following his suspension, but Jay Goldie is missing.
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