NEWTONMORE BOSS Norman 'Brick' MacArthur (left) said his team is "quietly confident" of a win this Saturday against Kyles Athletic, which would see them complete a memorable league and Camanachd Cup double.
A huge travelling support is expected to make the long journey from Newtonmore for the shoot-out beween the league's best two teams on what has been termed as Shinty Super Saturday.
Newtonmore and Kyles Athletic's friendly sporting rivalry stretches back to the great days of Celly Patterson and Jock Paul MacKintosh, when the sides regularly met in the Camanachd Cup Final.
But this is the granny of all contests, between a Kyles side that has not lost a league game all season - though Newtonmore held them to a draw at the Eilan earlier.
Meanwhile, the defending Premier League champions have lost only one match this season.
'More are currently a point ahead having played one game more than their rivals, but a victory for either side will see the winners crowned champions.
The only result which would leave the title still open would be a draw.
That would leave Newtonmore having to rely on neighbours Kingussie to take both points off Kyles the following weekend in the last game of the season.
In short, both sides have it all to do this weekend in another end of season climax that should be at least the equal of the game between Newtonmore and Fort William last season.
'More manager MacArthur told the 'Strathy': "We are looking forward to the match and are quietly confident as we have played really well in our last three games.
"Training has been going fine and we have no injury worries, which is good news.
"Kyles are a good young team and it's a big game for them as well as for us. It's basically a case of 'winner takes all'.
"I think it will be a close game and it's a hard one to call, I don't know which way it will go."
He added: "We haven't beaten them for a number of years so we are due a result. The league is the hardest trophy to win, so if we can hang on to the title we won last year that would be a great achievement.
"Last year, we concentrated on the league and won it and this year we concentrated on the Camanachd Cup and won that, so if it would be an added bonus if we could win both this year.
"We will, hopefully, have quite a few fans coming to the game and it would be great to give them another trophy."
Other excitement on Shinty Super Saturday includes Kilmallie travelling to Oban to take on Oban Camanachd, whose position now looks dire.
Oban will need to defeat Kilmallie by seven clear goals to avoid the drop and consign Inveraray to South Division 1 instead. But if Oban do go down, it will end up as a double whammy for them as their second string - Lochside Rovers - who finished third in South Division 1, will also be relegated as no club may have two teams in the same division.
