Caithness battle against player shortage

Caithness face the prospect of a second forfeit of the season as head coach George Sutherland struggles to raise a team for tomorrow’s National 3 trip to Greenock Wanderers.

Despite the Greens recording their first win of the season against Strathmore last weekend, a shortage of available players has left Sutherland afraid they will have to pull out of tomorrow’s fixture.

Caithness were docked three points when they withdrew from a trip to Carrick earlier in the season.

Although last week’s win took their tally to two points, the Millbank outfit face another deduction if unable to fulfill their fixture with league leaders Greenock, who have won all five games this term.

Sutherland said: “We don’t want to forfeit, but it’s on the cards. I have been scrambling around to get a team together.

“We have a handful of injuries, but we just don’t have enough players. We need a pool of around 50 over the course of a season, and at the moment we have about 25.

“We have spoken to a couple of clubs about helping us out, including Ross Sutherland. They play two divisions below us, so for them to come along and perform is a big ask.

“If we do get a team together it certainly won’t be our strongest outfit going down. Greenock are top of the table so it will be a tough ask to keep the scoreline respectable.”

Highland are aiming to bounce back from their first National 1 loss of the season when they face Watsonian, who they defeated 32-3 in the Scottish Cup in August.

Head coach Davie Carson, who has Scott Fraser and Iain Chisholm back in contention, insists his players have rallied after last week’s 33-24 loss to Heriot’s Blues.

Carson said: “We have had a fantastic start, but we have maybe been glossing over things over the last three or four weeks and managing to sneak through.

“We are more than capable of coming back with the points.”