STRATHSPEY RFC turned their attention to the Caledonia 3 North-west League in their latest outing, after a three-week absence. when they met Craig Dunain.
The local side came away from the Highland capital with a 21-8 points victory but the team was made to work hard for every point.
Coach David Kinnear said they were lucky not to concede more points, especially when midway through the second half the result could have gone either way.
He said: "It wasn't the most convincing win and we made it very difficult for ourselves. I felt we were capable of better rugby, but all credit to Craig Dunain who capitalised on our weaknesses. They made us work hard for our win.
"We're going to have to go away and look at some of our decision-making before next weekend if we want to improve."
The opening minute saw Strathspey start confidently when they went through four phases, led by O'Reilly who was returning to the team after a two-year absence.
His efforts throughout the afternoon earned him the man of the match award and showed how much he has been missed over the last two seasons.
Having dominated the game for the first ten minutes, Strathspey appeared to drift away from their game plan and reverted to the dangers of one man rugby.
Too often players were guilty of running away from their support and not committing to the loose; instead choosing to hang back and wait for the ball.
But seeing the problem, Mackenzie took control and led by example by competing at the breakdown and winning ball.
It at least allowed Adam at fly half to set his backs going; his ability to nearly always break the gain line is enough to give any encouragement to a back line.
Tindall was effective with some powerful runs and Gaff on the wing took advantage of the space created.
Strathspey finally opened their account in the 20th minute when MacGregor set up good second phase ball before Adam sensed an overlap and sent a wide pass to Campbell, who stretched for the line.
Tindall, who did not put a foot wrong all afternoon with his kicking, converted the score.
Complacency crept into the visitor's side allowing Craig Dunain the chance to get a foothold on the game. Camped in the opposition half, the Inverness side worked their way up to the Strath 22m line after the visitors gave away a series of simple penalties.
Eventually Craig Dunain's efforts were rewarded when Strath were caught off side and the home team duly claimed the three points to close the gap to 7-3 points.
Gould at open side flanker rallied the forwards and helped drive the opposition off the ball at the rucks whilst Brady was effective around the fringes. Bloyce at scrum-half was providing good service throughout the match.
Campbell played with confidence at centre, and after collecting a penalty kick intended for touch, set off on a run that took him 10 metres from the Craig Dunain try line.
Again Strath showed their potential by setting up four phases before Justice picked up and drove over the line to extend the score to 14-3 points.
Strathspey should have wrapped up the game after getting the upper hand early into the second-half but instead things seemed to go array for the visitors.
A series of dropped passes, wrong options and forward passes all contributed to a period of frustration. The situation was further compounded when the opposition try line was beckoning on at least three occasions and the visitors failed to score.
Langlands was doing his best by to steady things by breaking through the home team defence and carrying the ball deep into their territory, with Farrow effective around the fringes before coming off with a bad cut above the eye.
But on each occasion Strath put themselves under pressure with unforced errors. Craig Dunain in the meantime were putting the ball in behind the visitors defence pinning them back into their own half.
Eventually good pressure from the home team resulted in a clearance kick being charged down, before the loose ball was collected by Craig for a score under the posts.
With the score at 14-8 points, the Inverness side sensed there was an opportunity to win and continued to run at the visitors.
But with only 10 minutes remaining, and arguably against the run of play, Strathspey showed some enterprise and took a quick tap penalty on the 22m line before spinning the ball wide to Campbell.
He offloaded to Adam coming in at speed on the wing to dive over unchallenged in the corner. Once again Tindall slotted over the conversion from out on the touch line to make it 21-8 points.
All that remained was for Strathspey to hold out on their defence till the end of the match.
Strathspey: Gaff, Adam (Capt) Tindall, Campbell, Sutherland, R. Mackenzie, Black, MacGregor, B. Mackenzie, Farrow, O'Reilly, Brady, Gould, Bloyce and Justice.
Training continues on Thursdays, at 7pm, at Kingussie High School.
