Aberdeen friendly will be good challenge for Inverness Caledonian Thistle Women
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle Women's manager Karen Mason is expecting a good test when her side takes on Aberdeen in a pre-season friendly this afternoon.
The Dons won promotion to SWPL2 last season as Division One North champions, one spot ahead of Caley Thistle after going the entire campaign undefeated.
It will be the first friendly for both sides ahead of the 2020 season, which is due to start early next month.
And Mason is confident Aberdeen will provide enough of a challenge to show ICT where they stand, even if the end result will not be important.
"With Aberdeen being the champions last year, and beating us twice, it shows the quality that their team possesses," Mason explained.
"They're preparing for a league one tier above us this year, and they have managed to take in three or four new players to strengthen their squad, so they will definitely be a test for us.
"Especially when it is the first pre-season friendly for both teams, I think we provide challenges for them that they want to prepare for and vice-versa. The fact that it's probably one of our closer teams too, that we can go to to play some higher opposition, it was an ideal starting point.
"I wouldn't say it's about the result though, it's literally just getting minutes under the belt and giving people some chances to play together that haven't before.
"It's more about the gelling process for us really, rather than who's winning at the end of the day."
Caley Thistle were actually presented with a surprise chance to join Aberdeen in SWPL2 when Hutchison Vale dropped out of the league.
Scottish Women's Football approached the next eligible teams for promotion, Inverness from the North division and Boroughmuir from the South league, to see if they would be interested in filling the spot.
ICT turned down the offer though, believing that another year in Division One North could do them good.
"I got a call last week and we basically had to make a decision by the next morning on whether we would accept promotion or not," Mason explained.
"Obviously I had to speak to the players, because at the end of the day our team is based on what they want to do, and they were all very much of the opinion that we need to earn our spot and not just be handed it.
"We were also thinking that another year in this league would allow us to learn from our mistakes from last year, and try and go forward and win the league rather than just being given a spot in a league that we might not necessarily be ready for.
"That was the quick decision we had to come for, and that has put a bit more fire in our belly for this year to make sure we go on and win promotion of our own accord.
"If we had said yes and Boroughmuir had said yes, it would have gone to a play-off before the league had even started. There was a whole lot more logistics involved in it than us just saying no thank you.
"We just didn't think as a team that we were ready to go and compete at that level, thinking that another year in the Championship will prepare us to compete more in that league."
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