Caley Thistle Women boss Karen Mason says her side will be looking to put things right when they face familiar foe Dryburgh Athletic on Sunday.
The Caley Jags face the Dundee side in the Scottish Women’s Championship for the first time this season, with both sides having played in the regional north division last year.
The two sides played each other three times last season, which resulted in a win each for Inverness and Dryburgh, and a draw.
Mason says her side’s familiarity with Dryburgh could be of some help, but she insists that means nothing if her side don’t focus on themselves rather than the opposition.
She said: “It’s probably a bit of a bonus that we’ve come up against Dryburgh last season, so it’s a team that we know and we’re familiar with.
“They have made some changes and have made a couple signings since we last played them, so they could be a bit of a different side.
“We just need to focus on ourselves and prepare like we would for any other team in the league. But we know it’s going to be a close, and difficult game.
“We can maybe take a bit of confidence from beating them last season, but we have to worry about our own performance and not the opposition.”
Mason’s squad determined to put wrongs right
Caley Thistle travel to Dundee to face Dryburgh having lost three out of the first four games of the Championship season, with their last game being a fortnight ago.
However, Mason says morale hasn’t been affected and squad have been working hard to improve over the break of fixtures.
She said: “It’s kind of like starting afresh again. We can’t really dwell on the results, but we can work on the things that we’ve not done well.
“We know we’re not in a massive slump. We’re not finding it difficult to lift the squad – it’s not been like that at all. Everyone has been wanting to put in the hard work.
“They all want to make sure they’re starting on Sunday so they can try and put all the wrongs right.”
📈 And here's a reminder of what the #SWFChampionship league table looks like ahead of this weekend's games… pic.twitter.com/B8c2vBCOju
— SWF Championship (@SWFChampionship) September 13, 2022
Mason reckons a win against Dryburgh could help kickstart Inverness’ season as they aim to be challenging at the top-end of the table.
Her side go into this weekend’s game currently sitting third-bottom with three points, but are just six points off the top-three who all have nine points.
She said: “We’ve had three losses on the bounce now, and that’s something we certainly don’t want to become familiar with. It’s about trying to stop the rot, really.
“Getting the win would help us kick on, but if we lose and results don’t go our way, we could end up bottom, so it’s a big game for confidence.
“We want to challenge at the top end of the table so now is the time to kick that into action.
“It’s still early enough that the league is still quite tight, so one result could really boost our confidence and turn things around for us.”