Goalkeeper Dylan Maclean is sure better times are coming soon for Nairn County in the Highland League ahead of visit to Keith
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Dylan Maclean believes Nairn County are ready to finally ignite their season at Keith’s Kynoch Park this weekend.
The Wee County have endured a series of early season setbacks with four straight league defeats and just a single win away to Wick Academy in the Highland League Cup.
Having faced three potential title challengers already, though, it has been an extremely challenging opening sequence of fixtures, and Maclean insists there should be no sense of panic.
The reliable goalkeeper, now in his ninth season at Station Park, is frustrated at having conceded eight goals in the opening five matches, without a clean sheet to his name so far.
The latest performance at the weekend ended in an honourable 2-0 away defeat to last season’s champions Brechin City.
With just one goal for so far this season – in the Highland League Cup – taking opportunities at the other end will make all the difference, the 27-year-old feels.
“We were strong in parts of the game against Brechin and we defended alright at times,” Maclean stressed.
“We just need to take our chances when they fall to us because you don’t get many against teams like Brechin and Buckie.
“If we’d taken the first one that fell to us at 0-0, it might have been a very different game.
“So far, we’ve played pretty well against Brora and I was gutted by the way we lost that day, but we didn’t show up against Banks O’Dee and scraped through against Wick away in the preliminary round of the cup.
“Rothes was disappointing as well, but Brechin was better and I’m hoping we can kick on against Keith in the League Cup this weekend and get into the next round.
“The next run of games we have are ones where, hopefully, we can score goals and build confidence – and keep clean sheets.
“We had a great run last season where our tails were up and we were a force to be reckoned with and we want to get that going again.
“Keeping the confidence high is key to it all.”
Last season, Nairn revelled in a purple patch of just one defeat in 14 games between October and February.
With a squad Maclean feels is now stronger than a year ago, he believes prospects for similar progress in a coming sequence of games against the Maroons, Lossiemouth twice and Strathspey Thistle are good.
“We have great experience from Ross Tokely, Conor Gethins and Wayne Mackintosh, but also youth and energy in boys like Aaron Nicolson and Jamie Carnihan (both ex-Caley Thistle youths),” he said.
“It is a real mixture, but it is good – and everyone is enjoying it. We just need to kick on now, beginning this Saturday.
“If we can get into the next round of the cup, we can get a good run going in the league and push ourselves up the table.
“I know we are better than we are showing currently in the table.”
