Stoneywood primed for crucial weekend

Stoneywood Dyce face a critical clash against Stewart’s Melville this weekend, according to player-coach Jan Stander.

Both sides have won just once in their first six games, with the Aberdeen side bottom of the Eastern Premier League by two points.

Stoneywood have lost their last five games and have been left to count the cost of missed chances, particularly against some of the league’s bigger sides.

Defeat to Watsonians last week came by a margin of 142 runs, despite the home side having the capital outfit 25 for five in their innings.

Stander believes his side are continuing to learn, but need to start turning nearmisses into victories.

He said: “It’s critical. These are the teams we need to be targeting. Stoneywood Dyce has probably punched about its weight for a couple of seasons, but it’s because we have put a lot of work into coaching and training.”

Stander will return to the side this weekend as a batsman only, after missing last week due to a fractured thumb.

He will play through the pain again after suffering the injury facing the bowling of his old Scotland colleague Gordon Goudie.

He added: “It’s still not right, but I’m going to attempt to play. It’s my right thumb so I won’t be able to grip the ball properly.

“I’ve had finger injuries before while fielding, where I’ve not taken the ball cleanly. I’ve not had it while batting before, but these things happen.”

Stander reckons Stoneywood have struggled to capitalise on being on top in games, before seeing the momentum shift against them. He added: “Cricket is so much a momentum game. When you’ve got a team 50-forfive and they end up scoring 240, the momentum has completely shifted.

“It’s quite hard in a 25-minute period (between innings) to change that and get it back to you. It’s hard when you know you have been in a winning position and let it slip.

“The important bit to me is we keep fighting and learning. We have played against two teams better than us and if we said would we expect to beat them? Probably not.

“If we take the chances we had we would be sitting in mid-table comfortably.”