Ewan Davidson believes Stoneywood-Dyce’s next three games are crucial if they are to escape the threat of relegation from the Eastern Premier League.
The People’s Park side head to Carlton this weekend before taking on Watsonian at home on July 29 and then facing Falkland at Scroggie Park the following week.
Stoneywood-Dyce sit second bottom of the table with only one win from 11 games in a challenging season.
They will head into this pivotal run without captain Lennard Bester who left the club this week with Davidson tasked with leading the side for the remainder of the campaign.
He said: “The next three games are going to be crucial.
“They are all games we can win and we are targeting one or two wins in this next three.
“It might not sound right when you are sitting second bottom of the league but we genuinely believe that we can beat most of the teams in this league on our day.
“Hopefully the positive parts of the performance against Stewart’s Melville last week was the start of a turn in form.”
The 23-year-old took encouragement from his side’s display at Inverleith.
They looked to be on course for victory after dismissing Stewart’s Melville for 171 and reaching 60 without loss before collapsing to 122 all out.
Davidson said: “The atmosphere was really good last weekend.
“It felt like we were building on the areas we have been working on.
“It was a pretty good performance, especially as we had some of our usual starters unavailable.
“We were in the game the whole way through but we just came up short on a tricky wicket.
“I was really happy with the performance even though we didn’t get across the line.
“It was really positive and we are feeling confident heading into these last six games that we can keep building and the results will start to come.”
Davidson expects a stern test against a Carlton side that sit fourth in the table with seven wins from 10 games but believes it is a game they can win.
He added: “They are a pretty good team who always seem to fight to the end.
“They have managed to defend some low totals this season which shows they have a good spirit.
“We played really well against them in the reverse fixture earlier this season.
“We are pretty confident we can beat them if we go down there and put in the right performance.”
A chance to finish with a flourish
Huntly captain Jack Mitchell is looking for his side to finish the North East Championship season strongly.
They sit second in the table with six wins from nine matches with Arbroath United leading the way with a perfect record from 11 games.
Mitchell said: “We want to finish as high up the table as possible.
“At the start of the season, the target was to win the league but it is going to be tough to do that with the position Arbroath United are in.
“We want to get as many wins as possible and finish the season strongly.
“We also want to use the remaining games to give some other players a chance to get game time.
“We want to finish the season on a high so that we are feeling good about next season.”
Huntly take on Strathmore at Castle Park on Saturday.
He said: “They are a good side with some good players so we’ll be taking nothing for granted.”
Elsewhere, Aberdeenshire head to Lochside Park to take on second-bottom Kinloch while Gordonians make the trip to Freuchie.
Grade 1 title could be two-horse race
Bon Accord and Master Blasters Aberdeen look set to battle it out for the Grade 1 title after pulling ahead of the rest of the field in the run-in to what has been a high scoring and entertaining season.
The Bons who lead their challengers by the narrowest of margins, travel to Groats Road tomorrow where they play Knight Riders who have failed to produce the form that won them the league last season.
They have, however, occasionally demonstrated the teamwork which gave them their first ever Grade 1 title and are not to be taken lightly.
Master Blasters are also on the road, hoping to extinguish the slim chances of Mannofield in the top flight of the local game, on their own track, but again the home team are more than capable on one of the best wickets in Scotland.
Elsewhere, third-placed Gordonians are at home to AberGreen, while Grampian are hosts to Inverurie, arguably the team with the best batting line up in the league but lacking the consistency required to be able to make a title challenge.
Cults meet Crescent at Allan Park in an equally difficult game in which to predict the outcome.
In Grade 2, Aberdeen Grammar are looking to bounce back from successive defeats when they host second-placed Fraserburgh who have an outside chance of pipping them in the promotion race.