Highland’s new year target as they head south

Highland hope to keep their National 2 title charge going with a victory at Glasgow High Kelvinside tomorrow.

But Highland head coach Davie Carson is taking nothing for granted.

He said: “We have two games left now before the Christmas break and the aim is to win them both.

“We said before last week’s 32-14 home win against Falkirk that we would try to pick up 15 points before the festive break as that would set us up nicely again for January.”

Carson added: “GHK are a team full of young boys and they were certainly quick in the backs when we played them up in Inverness earlier in the season.

“We saw that they pushed Preston Lodge all the way last weekend until the very last minute before eventually going down 25-20 at home.

“Preston Lodge were a fair side when we played them so we know that it’s not going to be a walk in the park this weekend.

“We’ll just have to be prepared for a battle, take our time and hopefully get the scores we require.”

The Highland coach fired a word of warning over his side’s slow start last weekend, despite their eventual victory.

He said: “If we start as we did last weekend at home to Falkirk we could find ourselves in a bit of trouble.

“We talked at training this week about how important it is to start games better and not just expect to win games like this one without earning the right

“Nothing comes for free, especially in this league.

“On our way to National 2, on occasion games have been all over by half-time but in this league every club fights until the 80th minute.

“We have won and lost games in the final minute this term.”

Carson had encouraging news regarding the squad.

He said: “We will have back-row forward Andrew Findlater back refreshed after playing in temperatures of 30 degrees for eight days in a junior tournament at the Dubai Sevens.

“In addition, Erem Demeril, who plays in the second row, will take the place of Sean Blair, who is unavailable, and the backs will stay as they were.”