North Caledonian League leaders Loch Ness not getting carried away with title chances, says manager Shane Carling
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Shane Carling insists Loch Ness are not getting ahead of themselves despite leading the way in the North Caledonian title race.
So far this season, it has not been uncommon to see Loch Ness’ name at the top of the table, where they currently count Invergordon and Halkirk United as their nearest challengers.
That, according to Carling, has not gone to his players’ heads though.
There certainly does not seem to be any assumptions being made about where Loch Ness will end up at the end of the campaign, at the very least.
“None of the boys are talking about us winning the league,” Carling stressed.
“Nobody is saying ‘we’re top of the league now, we’re going to go on and win it’. There’s no pressure like that.
“We just try to keep winning. That’s all we can do, keep going and working hard.
“Everyone’s attitude has been great, no-one’s prancing about thinking we’re going to win the league. That’s the last thing we want.
“Everyone’s attitude has been absolutely brilliant so far this season, so we’ll just keep working hard and hopefully the results will keep coming too.”
Pre-season ambitions at Loch Ness saw them target the top four.
Although it now seems clear that more is possible, that is still Carling’s starting point for the time being.
“Top four, that’s what we’re going for,” he maintained.
“There’s still a long way to go, we could lose two or three games and drop down to fourth or fifth, so nobody’s attitude has changed. We’re still taking each game as it comes and treating every game as a cup final.
“Hopefully, we’ll get the points. We are going to slip up between now and the end of the season and drop points, so hopefully other teams do that as well.
“We just have to keep fighting, and then see where we are with three or four games to go.
“Then we’ll know roughly where we will finish in the league – if it’s going to be the top four, or the top two.”
