Teams stronger for Ross derby clash in North Caledonian League at Tain
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ST Duthus manager Alan Geegan says both Invergordon and his team will be improved sides from their previous encounter this season when they face each other in the North Caledonian League in Tain tomorrow.
The two teams met in the league in October when they drew 1–1 at Invergordon, but Geegan says both clubs have experienced an improvement in form since then.
“I will probably have a stronger squad than I took up to Thurso last week,” said Geegan.
“I would expect to have a stronger outfit than when we last played Invergordon at the start of the season.
“At the same time, I would expect Invergordon to be a stronger team this time around.
“But it is a derby and it could be a case of where the quality is on the day.”
Saints only managed to play 57 minutes of football on Saturday before their game at Thurso was called off due to gale force winds making the match unplayable.
Their previous game against Orkney was also called off due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the islanders’ squad.
Their last full match was against Inverness Athletic back on October 23 and St Duthus find themselves in seventh on 11 points.
With Saints eight points off leaders Halkirk United, Geegan says it is vital they don’t concede any more ground if they want to stay in the title race and is looking forward to tackling Invergordon in the derby.
“We are buzzing to get going again as it has been stop start for our squad over the last couple of weeks,” said Geegan.
“The boys are raring to get 90 minutes into the legs again. We have trained hard, including the Saturday the Orkney game was called off where we made sure we got a strong two hours of training into the legs.”
Billy Cairns and Ross Tokely are likely to miss tomorrow’s clash with Invergordon. But five players are set to return to the Saints squad for the derby.
