Wick Groats co-manager hails benefit of ‘Euros’ break ahead of Highland Amateur Cup showdown with High Ormlie Hotspur
Wick Groats boss co-Kevin Anderson says his charges will have to be at their best to advance to the next stage of the Highland Amateur Cup at the expense of High Ormlie Hotspur this weekend.
The clubs meet in the last 16 of the competition on Saturday, with a home tie awaiting in the winner in the next stage.
Only four clubs from Caithness remain in the cup, and both will be keen to fly the flag for the County going in to the quarter-finals.
Groats co-manager Kevin Anderson believes the association’s recent “Euros” break has given his side a chance to regroup after a busy start to the season, having already beaten Lybster 4-0 on Tuesday night.
He said: “We are really looking forward to Saturday. The Euro break came at quite a good time for ourselves. Like many other teams ,we had been pretty much two games every week since the start of the season and squad numbers were dropping dramatically.
“Thankfully the break has allowed us to get three or four bodies back. The five or so games prior to the break wasn’t the best, form-wise, for us, but we just need to reset and go again. Some boys took advantage of the break, for others we did have one training session.
“We had a good win against a strong Lybster team last night, so I’m hoping to kick on now for the second half of the season with squad numbers a lot better and competition within the squad is the best it’s been this season, so that can only help us going forward.
“As I’ve stated previously, High Ormlie Hotspur are a very good team, no doubts about that, we know that we will need to be at our best, but that’s exactly where we aim to be.”
High Ormlie suffered the narrowest of defeats in a 3-2 away to Castletown in the league on Tuesday evening, but will need no inspiration to raise themselves back up for what will be their third meeting against Groats this season.
The most recent meeting between the sides in the Colin Macleod Memorial Cup went the way of the Wick side in May. A league meeting in April ended in a 1-1 draw. Just two points separate the sides in the First Division.
Saturday’s Highland Amateur Cup meeting will kick off at 3pm. The venue for the game is still to be determined.