Northern Counties opening batsman Alex Green feels his side are building for the future as they look to maintain their strong start to the NOSCA senior league season.
Counties participated in the CS Challenge Cup for the first time last weekend, putting on a strong showing but losing by 89 runs.
The Inverness outfit also created history by hosting their first junior under-14 match against Ross County on Wednesday, which they lost by seven runs.
Green feels it has been an encouraging week for the club, and hopes they can bear the fruits of their efforts to develop young players.
He said: “It was nice to play against a team from a different league. It puts into perspective the level we are at.
“I didn’t necessarily think we were out of our depth against Stenhousemuir, on the day I just thought they played better than we did.
“We didn’t go with as many first team regulars as we would have hoped for, but some of the younger guys stepped up to the plate and I didn’t notice any weaknesses in the team – it just wasn’t our day with the bat.
“I hope we can keep playing in the competition in future.
“The junior match against Ross County is just credit to the hard work that some of the guys at the club have been doing, such as Jon and Will Ford.
“We have already had two or three of them who have been playing junior cricket for the club for a while step up.
“Shannon Thorp made his first team debut in the Challenge Cup and took a wicket and six or seven runs.
“He didn’t look out of place at all which was nice to see.”
Counties take on Elgin tomorrow in their second game of the league season, having opened with a victory over Ross County a fortnight ago.
He added: “We got a win in the first game of the league against Ross County, who are always quite a difficult opposition. We have a 100% record so I’m hoping we can keep that for as long as possible.
“Elgin are one of those teams who in previous years have not had the best performances, but they are not one we can write off straight away.
“This season they seem to have made a better start than they have before. It will be a game we don’t take our foot off the gas, and we will have to be on our A game to beat them.”
Ross County take on Forres St Lawrence in tomorrow’s other senior league fixture, with Nairn County having a free weekend.