This Saturday could prove to be the pivotal day in deciding the destiny of this season’s Breedon Highland League title.
With three games remaining, Brora Rangers and Brechin City are locked on 73 points with Brora at the summit thanks to their vastly superior goal difference.
But this afternoon both sides face their toughest assignment on the closing stretch of games – with Brora hosting third-place Banks o’ Dee, while Brechin face their own tricky test when they head to North Lodge Park to take on Formartine United.
Brora are 31 goals better off than Brechin, so a win against Dee on Saturday afternoon would be a gigantic stride towards the title.
They end the season with home games against ninth-placed Huntly – who they defeated 5-0 in midweek – on April 5 and bottom of the table Rothes on the final day a week later.
And what about Banks o’ Dee?
The Spain Park side are five points behind Brora and Brechin with a game in hand – a victory at Dudgeon Park on Saturday, followed by a midweek win at Fraserburgh, could leave them only two points behind with two games to go should Brechin slip up at Formartine.
It’s all geared up for another pulsating finale in the Breedon Highland League – but Brora manager Steven Mackay says his players are not looking beyond this weekend’s visit of Banks o’ Dee.
He said: “It is another huge game.
“I think it has been six or seven weekends of huge games.
“This is another one.
“We have three home games to go and Banks o’ Dee will be a really tough test for us.
“We have played well recently so we can take confidence from those games, but we need to be at our very best 0 as we were when we played Huntly on Wednesday.
“This one will be deemed, on paper, as our toughest assignment of the three, but when you get to this stage of the season when there is so much at stake I think every game carries a little bit of trepidation.
“We will focus on Saturday. We know how dangerous Banks o’ Dee can be and this will be deemed as their last chance saloon, so they will come to Dudgeon Park and really push for a win.
“Equally, we will be doing the same, so there is a lot at stake for both teams.
“It is a huge game for us and Banks o’ Dee.”
Jordan MacRae (shoulder) remains sidelined for the Cattachs, while Max Ewan could return after missing the midweek win against Huntly with a foot injury.
Banks o’ Dee will head north without Hamish Macleod, while defender Jevan Anderson is a doubt.
Brechin need a helping hand
Brechin will need Brora to slip up over the closing stages if they are to have a chance of making it into the SPFL pyramid play-off.
The Glebe Park men survived a scare on Wednesday when they came from behind against Strathspey Thistle to win 4-1.
They follow up this Saturday’s match at Formartine with home games against Nairn County and Lossiemouth.
Interim boss Ray McKinnon said: “It’s out of our hands. Goal difference is killing us.
“We will just try and win the last three games, and fingers crossed – we will see what happens.
“We have played a lot of games recently, so we freshened it up a bit against Strathspey.
“That backfired a bit, and in the first 10 or 15 minutes we got a bit slack and sloppy. We lost a goal and ended up chasing that game.
“We made the changes. It was nice we had options off the bench.
“We had Cillian Sheridan and Mitch Taylor, who both came on and scored two.
“Although we freshened the team up, we had to bring the guys on to finish the job. They did it, but fair play to Strathspey, who gave a great account of themselves.
“Dayle Robertson took a bad one on his ankle, so we will see how he is.”
Huntly to honour legends
Huntly will honour two club legends this weekend ahead of their home clash with Inverurie Locos.
The Christie Park stand will be named the Forbes Shand and Jim McGregor Stand in honour of the two club stalwarts, who will both be present at the game.
Andrew Stokes, Huntly’s commercial director, said it is fitting for both men to be recognised for their long association with the Black and Golds.
He said: “We wanted to recognise the tremendous service they have given to the club over a long period of time.
“Jim made his debut as a player in 1962 and has been involved with the club ever since – as a player, a coach, a manager and a member of the committee and board and in recent years as an ambassador.
“Forbes was instrumental in Huntly’s glory years. He became chairman, I believe, in 1980 and continued until 2000. He has since served as the honorary president since stepping down as chairman. He is also a former president of the Highland League.
“We have a Forbes Shand Trophy and the board members award it to their player of the year.
“We had unprecedented success in that period with the five Highland League championships, three Highland League cups, six Aberdeenshire Cups and four Qualifying Cups.
“There will be a number of the five-in-a-row players coming to the game, so it should be a really good occasion.
“We will have the ceremony just before kick-off
“We felt it was appropriate to recognise their immense contribution to the club.”
The Huntly squad is unchanged from midweek, while Locos could be without Cole Anderson (knee) and Josh Buchan (hamstring).
Strathspey digging deep and this weekend’s team news
Strathspey Thistle boss Ryan Esson is asking his players for one final push as the end of the season nears.
The Jags, who are second bottom of the Highland League, head to Bellslea this weekend to take on Fraserburgh.
Esson said: “We are fatigued as a team. Saturday is going to be our 12th game in six weeks.
“That’s a hard shift. I feel sorry for the boys because of the volume that’s being asked of them.
“We are trying to change it as much as we can, and help players out, but we have niggles here and there.
“I don’t know if the league can do anything about it. We are asking boys to play 15 games in two months, which is a hard shift.”
The Broch, unbeaten in their last eight league games, will again be without Aidan Sopel and Liam Strachan.
Elsewhere, Forres Mechanics will be missing Kaiden Connolly (hamstring) for the visit of Clachnacuddin to Mosset Park.
Joe Malin, Scott Davidson and Jack Mackay will be absent for the fifth-placed Lilywhites.
Lossiemouth have home advantage against Buckie Thistle, but will be minus Jared Kennedy, Connor Macaulay, Saul Phimster and Stuart Knight.
Turriff, who take on Rothes at the Haughs, have Ewen Robertson, Andy Watt, Lee Herbert, James Chalmers and Keir Smith out injured, while Glen Donald is unavailable.
Nairn County make the journey to Wick Academy looking to bounce back following their 3-2 loss at Keith on Tuesday.
They will be without Millar Gamble, Kenny McKenzie, Wayne Mackintosh, Tyler Eadie, Kenny MacInnes, Alan Pollock, Jamie Carnihan and Ben Kelly.
Deveronvale 3-2 Keith
Deveronvale overturned a two-goal deficit to take the points in a five-goal thriller at Princess Royal Park on Friday night.
The victory ended a run of eight league defeats on the spin for Vale, who moved up to 11th place.
Keith fielded their former keeper Andy Shearer as a trialist, making his 350th appearance for the Kynoch Park club, 13 years after his last appearance.
There was a healthy crowd inside the ground for Friday night football, arguably more than there would have been had the game been scheduled for the following afternoon.
In the 20th minute Keith opened the scoring when a long free-kick picked out full back Ronan Craib lurking at the back post and his header looped up and over Sean McIntosh.
Two minutes later the visitors doubled their advantage when McIntosh made a hash of a clearance, the ball went straight to Horace Ormsby who advanced and chipped the unfortunate keeper from the edge of the box.
But five minutes later Vale were right back in the game when Demilade Yunus gave Shearer no chance with a 25-yard screamer which flew into the roof of the net.
Eight minutes from the interval Jack Mitchell should have equalised but Shearer managed to block the forward’s close-range effort.
Just after the break home keeper McIntosh was fortunate there were no takers when a deep Nathan McKeown cross squirmed out of his grasp.
In the 50th minute Deveronvale equalised with another great strike from distance, full back Jayden Goldie beating Shearer with a thunderous 22-yard drive.
Just before the hour Jack Mitchell almost fired Vale ahead but his dipping 15-yard dipping drive landed on the roof of the net with Shearer beaten.
Deveronvale took the lead in the 72nd minute when Mitchell nodded home a pin-point Adam Reid cross from four yards out, despite a valiant effort from Shearer to stop the ball crossing the line.
Deep into injury-time Vale player-manager Garry Wood, who had already been substituted, was shown a straight red card by referee Scott Donohoe, apparently for remarks made towards the official.
Conversation