| Keith duo suspended / Ten out for Clach |
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Keith this week announced that Martin Allan will stay in charge until the end of the year to bring stability to Kynoch Park after the Maroons boss last week stated his intention to step down from his post as soon as a successor was found. Last week's news didn't have an adverse effect on the Keith players' performance though as they showed superb battling qualities to earn a point late on at Inverurie Locos despite being reduced to nine men following the dismissals of Derek Nicol and Dean Donaldson. Allan said: "In the first game of the season when we played Clach, we came up against a really confident, young and enthusiastic team who gave us a really difficult game and ended up beating us quite convincingly. We are certainly looking to be in a position where we pick up the three points and try to show a bit more of what we are about rather than watch them play like we did in the first game. "In terms of performances, Clach's display against us was probably one of the best performances we have come across this season because they were outstanding that day. "You go into every game to try to win it and if you get beat in the first game, you certainly see the second game as a chance to get one other on them so I am sure that will be a bit of extra motivation for Saturday. "The motivation is to win every game but you have still got to try to have little goals and in the first game, they beat us well so we have got to try to see if we can go and do the same to them this time around." Allan will be minus the services of Derek Nicol and Dean Donaldson as they are suspended following red cards against Inverurie Locos last weekend while Danny Tritton is out with an Achilles injury he suffered in training. Long term absentees Iain Good, Neil Robertson and Gary Nicol are also still sidelined. Clach beat Keith on the opening day of the season with a convincing win at Grant Street Park but now sit eight points behind the home side in the table. A victory in this game would be the perfect tonic for Lilywhites boss Iain Polworth as his players look to get back on track. He said: "It is another difficult game for us but it will be a good challenge for us. Keith is a nice place to go and I have the utmost respect for the management team there. I think both Martin Allan and Kenny Taylor will be a big loss to Highland League football. They have been around for a long time and they will make it difficult for us. "It is also difficult because of the position we are in both on the park and off the park on the injury front and with the club's finances. I think we maybe caught Keith a bit cold on the opening day of the season and the parks then suited our younger boys and their style of football a bit better." Polworth will be without long term absentees Neil Gibb and Chris Ross and although Gordon Mackenzie was fit enough to be on the bench last weekend, he has suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury that has set him back at least another month. On top of that, James Fraser, Duncan Jones, Kyle Maclean and Scott Davidson are also added to the injury list while Blair Lawrie, Neil MacCuish and David Matheson all miss the trip to Kynoch Park because of work commitments. |
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