Highland head coach plans for a 'month of cup finals'
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A MONTH of ‘cup finals’ lie in Highland’s path for glory, according to head coach Dave Carson.
Highland travel to North Berwick in the semi-final of the National Shield this Saturday, before away league games against Glenrothes and Gordonians that could go a long way to deciding the destination of the Caledonia League Division One title.
A potential Shield final, against either St Boswells or Carrick, would await at Murrayfield on April 16 and Carson cannot state the importance of the next run of games enough.
The Inverness side continued their charge towards the league title on Saturday, with a 29-0 win over Dunfermline in what Carson called the toughest match of the season so far. But it will surely be the first of many big games from now until the conclusion of the season in May.
“Every game is a cup final now and we need to keep things moving along,” said Carson. “We’ve got a final to get to and then two or three league games that could decide an awful lot. After the games against Glenrothes and Gordonians we could have one hand on the title.”
Preparation switches now to the North Berwick, with Carson admitting little is known of their BT East Regional League Division One opponents. He stressed however, that despite the lengthy away journey his side will face at the weekend, preparations will be kept as normal as possible.
“I’ve always felt you get a better night’s sleep in your own bed and leaving early doesn’t bother us, so we’ll leave Inverness at eight on Saturday morning,” said Carson ahead of the 380-mile round trip. “We’ll stop for breakfast en-route and it will take us a good four hours to get there, which will get us there in plenty of time for a 3pm kick-off.”
From kick-off the Dunferm-line game was closely-contested. Andrew Findlater was first across the line with a try converted by Morris Dillon and this was followed by an unconverted try from Richard Sim.
Highland ran in three more tries in the second half, one by Nathan McLaughlan converted by Dillon, a second from Sim and the last by Craig Irvine for a final score of 29-0.
The league table looks very good now with Highland sitting only three points behind Gordonians with three games in hand. The squad came through uninjured with only Rory Cross coming off as a precaution.
Highland’s under-18s missed out on some game practice as Aberdeen Grammar pulled out of a friendly game leaving the squad and coaches to have a morning training session instead.
On Sunday the under-16s travelled to play Stirling County in the Caledonia Cup semi-final and were unlucky to be knocked out in a narrow 13-8 defeat. Through in Elgin at the Moray Mini Festival it was a very good day for Highland as the P3 and P4/5 squad won their competitions while the P6/7 squad were runners-up.
