St Duthus will march with caution into game against Bonar Bridge
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St Duthus will be taking nothing for granted when they travel to Bonar Bridge as they look to go top of the North Caledonian League.
Fresh from their 4–1 victory over Invergordon in the Ross-shire derby, the Tain outfit are only three points behind league leaders Thurso.
Currently in third place, a win could see Saints move into pole position if other results go their way on Saturday.
Bonar Bridge have conceded 31 goals in their four matches of the season and are rooted at the bottom.
But Saints’ manager Stuart Ross says his team know that three points is never guaranteed.
“There are no easy games in the North Caledonian League,” he said.
“Bunillidh proved that last year when they beat us at Couper Park.
“Our players will be heading to Bonar Bridge with a professional head on.
“We will approach the game in the right manner.
“We’ve found teams like Bonar always raise their game against St Duthus by keeping things tight at the back and doing damage at the other end.”
Ross is pleased with how St Duthus recovered from their 3–2 home defeat by Thurso by defeating Inverness Athletic in the league and cup along with beating Invergordon in the Ross-shire derby.
“Beating Invergordon was massive for us as it is the one game we always look for in the fixtures as soon as they came out.
“We didn’t expect to race into a 3–0 lead as it is usually a tough game against Invergordon.
“But we got the goals at the right time in the first half which set us up for the second half.”
St Duthus scored three goals in the space of seven minutes against Invergordon with Stefan MacRitchie opening the scoring with a free-kick in the 24th minute.
Four minutes later Mikey Rae doubled Saints’ advantage with Ben Bruce making it 3-0 after 31 minutes.
Ian Penwright pulled one back for Invergordon but Scott Miller restored St Duthus’ three-goal lead in injury time.
Elsewhere in the league, leaders Thurso thrashed Bunillidh 7–2, Orkney beat Inverness 3–0 and Golspie drew 2–2 with Halkirk United.
