Head coach Carson wants message spread on Highland’s home-field dominance
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MOST head coaches warn against whisper campaigns – but Highland’s Dave Carson is actively encouraging one.
Carson wants the word spread about Highland’s fearsome home form, in the hope that it gives his side a psychological advantage over any side that sets foot on Canal Park.
Since Carson took the first-team reins at the start of the 2013-14 season, Highland have not lost a home fixture at Canal Park. In fact, their last defeat came at the hands of north rivals Caithness in March 2013 – an incredible three-and-a-half years ago.
There is no big secret to maintaining such a long run but there is a fierce determination within the home dressing room to keep their proud record going. Some players even know exactly how many games it was since they last tasted defeat in Inverness.
Carson accepts the record is likely to go at some stage but for the meantime, hopes the message is quietly spread throughout National Three of their prowess on home soil.
"If clubs see how we’re doing, particularly at home, that’s something that can get in to the minds of their players," he said. "No-one knows about us, having just come up from Caledonia One, so it’s massive to keep this unbeaten run going.
"As coaches, we came in at a nice time and at a level where could ease ourselves in. The talk before every home game is that it’s our turf and that we’ve not been beaten in x-amount of games. The boys rightly have pride in that record and it’ll certainly be an interesting day when it falls. Hopefully it won’t be any time soon."
The next potential victims are Perthshire tomorrow, who come to the Highlands looking for their first point of the season after tasting defeat in their opening two encounters.
The North Inch club struggled for players, through injury and availability, in last weekend’s defeat to St Boswells and any mental fragility will be seized upon by the home side.
"The first 20 minutes is so crucial," said Carson. "Teams face coming up here after a long journey and if we can do some damage early, that can make a big difference. We did it against Orkney at home.
"We need to try and carry on from where we left off last week. We conceded three cheap tries against Orkney but tightened it up at Haddington."
Carson will be without Stuart Watson, Jonny Milton, Steven Rutledge and Tam Magowan for tomorrow’s game but has been boosted by the return of three players to the squad.
Rory Cross and Tom Brogan come back into the fold, while Murdo Paterson rejoins Highland after taking a year out from university in Edinburgh.
"Murdo played under-18s for us a couple of years ago and had been playing for Edinburgh Accies," added Carson. "He’s a tight-head prop and we’re hoping to get him registered in time to play. In the past we’ve struggled for front-row players up here; If it wasn’t for Stuart and Jonny coming through we’d have been really short."
Carson’s front-row options have also been boosted this year by the addition of Lewis Sinclair, who came down the A9 from neighbours Ross Sutherland.
The second XV have a scheduled break in their fixtures and gives the players and coaches James Hay and Alistair McKenzie some time to prepare for the trip to Moray. They still scored four tries in a big defeat against RAF Lossiemouth and know what has to be done to reverse that, which has much to do with what squad is available.
The junior sides are at weekend four of the President’s Conference and their opponents are West of Scotland. Another good club side and the bar will again be set high for Highland’s youngsters. On Saturday the under-18s travel to Glasgow as do the under-16s and under-15s on Sunday.
Also on Sunday the under-14s and under-13s have home advantage. The Minis and Micros have training sessions at 11am.
