Locos leap of faith as they face Vale

Inverurie Locos can leapfrog Formartine United into fourth place with a win over Deveronvale at Harlaw Park tonight (8.00).

Locos manager Neil Cooper has challenged his players to build on last weekend’s impressive win at Nairn County.

He said: “We want to win every game as we’re in fifth position just now and Forres Mechanics are just behind us with a couple of games in hand.

“We should get a good crowd and hopefully the fans will turn out and we can get a good performance.

“We’ve not taken enough points off those teams above us in the table, particularly Cove Rangers and Fraserburgh.

“We know that we will get a hard game against Deveronvale – we always have done – so anything less than a top-class performance could cost us, but hopefully we can continue where we left off against Nairn County last weekend when the boys were fantastic.

“We will have four players back in the squad, full back Chris Herd is free of suspension, while midfielder Stuart Duff and wide player Jordan Leyden, who were also unavailable for the Nairn game are also back, along with midfielder Colin Charlesworth who is now fully fit.”

Deveronvale manager Steve Dolan is looking forward to a rare Friday night game and believes the Highland League should consider scheduling more.

He said: “I honestly believe that the Highland League should schedule a Friday night game every two or three weeks as you always seem to attract a good crowd under the lights for a Friday night game.

“Obviously Locos will start as favourites for the game as they are on a good run just now, and Neil Gauld is scoring goals for fun.

“We will hand a debut to our new goalkeeper Robbie Mutch, who is on loan from Falkirk.

“It will be a big night for him as he has been brought up in Inverurie.”