Clachnacuddin need to introduce fear factor at Grant Street Park, says manager Jordan MacDonald
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JORDAN MacDonald is vowing to take Clach’s attacking mindset into every fixture this season – with Huntly, tomorrow, no exception.
Given the impact of the pandemic, the Merkinch club are preparing for their first competitive fixture at Grant Street Park since early January.
A 5–0 defeat away to Inverurie Locos marked the start of the league campaign, but there was no sense of shame in losing heavily to one of the potential title challengers.
MacDonald, with a young and promising team in development, is striving to take the club in a new direction with a positivity in the approach every weekend.
The Lilywhites manager is also eager to make their home ground a place where opponents venture knowing they will face, at best, an uncomfortable afternoon.
“Again, we’ll try to take the game to Huntly – and look to win the game,” MacDonald stressed.
“That’s how we approach it every week. We’re at home and we want to make our ground a place that teams don’t look forward to coming to.
“We want to make it as difficult as possible here and be hard to beat as well.
“Above all, we want to get the players used to winning again at Clach Park. It also gives the fans a boost if we start winning games at Grant Street.
“They will get right behind us if we do that, but they were right behind us at Harlaw Park on Saturday as well.”
MacDonald is happy with the way his squad is shaping up, but would still like to add one or two more seasoned performers to the ranks.
“The average age of my squad on Saturday was 22,” he said. “We’re not naive, and we’re still looking to bring in one or two in who would give us that wee bit of experience to help them.
“I was delighted for the young players, including four making their debuts – Stephen Kelly, Michael McRobert, Callum Black and Daniel Rae.
“There’s plenty of promise for us going forward. We’re not disheartened at all by the Inverurie result.
“I spoke to the players after the game and said it was down to basic mistakes. We’ve got to learn to cut them out and the place we do that is on the park.
“We’ve come in as a management team and we are clear on how we want to do things. We have the board’s blessing – and we’re going to stick to it.”
