Signs of improvement for Strathspey Thistle but formidable test awaits
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Jags boss Rob MacCormack has said he has been encouraged by performances if not results in recent weeks.
The Grantown side faces a formidable test away to Highland League champions Brechin tomorrow.
Thistle remain without any points and stuck at the bottom of the table and although everything points to a home win at Glebe Park, MacCormack believes displays have been better than their position warrants.
Strathspey Thistle lost 3-1 to inform Fraserburgh at home last weekend in the Highland League Cup but put in a very encouraging last half-hour when heads could have dropped.
And MacCormack will be looking for his side to show more of that character tomorrow.
He said: “There are not many tougher places to go away in the league than Brechin and we have players missing due to injuries and work commitments which is not ideal.
“But we will go there and give it everything that we have got and hopefully get a positive result.”
The Jags are hampered by a missing quartet.
Ross Logan and James McShane both picked up injuries in the cup game and will miss out this weekend but MacCormack is hopeful that they will not be sidelined for long.
Logan suffered a badly bruised foot and McShane picked up an ankle knock.
Meanwhile Daniel Whitehorn and Liam Grant are unavailable because of work duties.
MacCormack said: “We are hoping that both the injuries are only going to be short-term.”
He will be looking to the bench and hopes that the added depth that has been added in recent months will help them.
Josh Bolton (20th), Sean Butcher (pen) (56th) and Scott Barbour (59th) got the Broch goals with Daniel Whitehorn netting a consolation for Jags.
However, MacCormack was impressed by the attitude of his side after they went three goals down.
He said: We were obviously disappointed with the result but it was always going to be a difficult game. I was happy enough with the performance.
“I felt that we stuck to our game plan. We went 1-0 down to a great goal by them and going in at the interval just the goal down meant we were still in the match.
“But they got a penalty just after the restart and then three minutes later made it 3-0.
“We still had 35 minutes to go and I was interested to see how our players would react being 3-0 down as in the past we might have crumbled.
“But the players responded really well and got their reward through Daniel Whitehorn’s terrific header.
“We really went at Fraserburgh for the last half-hour and we probably should have scored a second to make it 3-2 and if that had been the case then we might have gone on to get a draw but we didn’t.
“Fraserburgh did sit in to make themselves difficult to beat for the last 20 minutes which is good for us – it shows that we are capable of having a go a top teams like Fraserburgh.
“But again, it comes down to putting the ball into the back of the net which is what we are struggling to do at the moment."
