Loch Ness and Nairn County to battle it out for top spot
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Loch Ness and Nairn County A will battle it out for pole position in North Caledonian League Division Two at Canal Park tomorrow night.
Leaders Loch Ness are one point ahead of Nairn as they look to return to winning ways after their 1–1 draw at Inverness Athletic.
The two sides met just two weeks ago when Loch Ness came out on top 3–2 in a five-goal thriller at Riverside Park.
But Loch Ness almost blew a three-goal lead in that match and manager Shane Carling says they can’t afford to give Nairn County’s reserve side chances in front of goal.
“Nairn are a team who don’t stop,” he said.
“We know what to expect from them on Friday night.
“But playing on our home ground on a nice surface will suit us more than them.
“We are a team who like to keep the ball on the ground and pass it.
“We can’t afford to drop any more points as we are away to Alness United next weekend.
“The boys know that and the importance of bouncing back.
“We will be working hard in training by forgetting what happened last Saturday and moving on to Friday and getting three points.”
Nairn County A manager Stuart Finnie says the prospect a victory could take his team top of the table tonight is not lost on his players.
After last week’s 7–3 win over Bonar Bridge, he is pleased with his team’s ruthlessness in front of goal.
But he feels Nairn are conceding too many goals at the back and his defence need to take more responsibility.
“The goals we’re conceding defensively is something we’ve spoken to the boys about,” he said.
“The final goal we conceded in the 7–3 win took the shine off the scoreline as it was such a stupid goal.
“We want to shut up shop at the back.
“We are scoring plenty of goals but we have to stop conceding as many as we have.
“We have conceded seven goals in our three league matches so far, thankfully we’ve managed to score a heap.”
Nairn County have suffered a blow with the news Lewis Mitchell could be out for up to six weeks. He pulled a muscle in his deltoid in the first team’s match against Elgin City.
Euan Logan and Robbie Mackenzie are also doubts for Nairn and were due to undergo fitness tests earlier this week at training.
The match kicks off at Canal Park at 7.30pm tomorrow.
