Dropping into SWF Championship's bottom three should motivate Inverness Caley Thistle's women
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Karen Mason is hoping Inverness Caledonian Thistle's women will use dropping further down the league table as motivation to go and beat Dryburgh Athletic.
Last weekend the Caley Jags' scheduled match against Morton was postponed due to a frozen pitch, but two other games in the SWF Championship did go ahead.
Ayr United's 5–1 win over Renfrew was the key one as far as Inverness were concerned, as Ayr leapfrogged the Highlanders, who slipped to sixth.
Now only ahead of Morton and Dryburgh, who each have games in hand over Caley Thistle, Mason hopes that can be the setback that sparks her squad into more consistent performances – starting with this afternoon's trip to bottom of the pack Dryburgh.
"If it doesn't motivate us then there's something seriously wrong," she stressed.
"It's not somewhere we saw ourselves being, and now the only teams below us are Morton and Dryburgh.
"It has to be motivation, it has to be an incentive for us to get further up the table again.
"Week in and week out teams can take points off us, but we're very familiar with Dryburgh and what their strengths are, so if there's any team we know about it's them.
"The games we've played against Dryburgh have usually had one goal in it, and on their home patch they're going to be strong. It's going to be a sticky one for us I'd imagine."
Mason, though, faces a headache at the back, with four defenders unavailable to go on the road.
Alex Andrews, Megan McCarthy, Nicola Ross and Peigi Barker will all be missing, potentially forcing either a change of shape or a rare run out for Mason herself to plug the gap.
Player availability has been a recurring issue for Caley Thistle Women this season, and could rear its head again if further call-offs force midweek fixtures.
As things stand, there are no evening games planned, but the calendar is now bursting at the seams after the latest postponements so Mason will be desperately hoping to avoid any more.
"If another game gets postponed now, we won't have any free Sundays because the play-off final is on June 4 and all the games will have to be played before then," Mason explained.
"It would be a bit more of a headache if we were to have another postponement.
"We did it last season, going away to Montrose, and if we know in enough time then we can try to be as flexible as we can.
"If the girls have enough notice for work, then they can get away, and a Friday night game wouldn't be too bad.
"It all just depends on where it is and who it is, so we'll always have that in the back of our minds – if we have to go, hopefully the girls will get it off work."
