Forres St Lawrence could reach the final of the NOSCA senior cup after just one match should they defeat Elgin at Grant Park tomorrow.
After receiving a bye for the opening round of the competition, Forres will host their Moray rivals, who set up the tie by defeating Nairn County.
That means Forres will face the winner of tomorrow’s other semi-final tie between Ross County and Northern Counties, with the final scheduled for August 14.
Forres captain Nigel Gerrard feels the fact only six teams entered the competition is indicative of the struggles faced by many teams in fielding a senior team following last year’s Covid-19 shutdown.
Gerrard said: “There are so few teams in it that if we win this match we will be in the final. That’s how bad it is at the moment.
“This season is going to be very difficult, because we are basically waking up after not playing any cricket last season.
“The number of clubs in the league partly reflects what happened last year.
“We had a good game against Elgin in the T20 which we managed to win.
“We are hopeful, but they were short of a few players last time around, so they may be a bit stronger.”
Forres opened their senior league campaign with a five-run defeat to Ross County last weekend, however, Gerrard took comfort from his side’s showing.
He added: “Last week we did a lot better than we thought we were going to do. Ross County are probably one of the favourites for the league, they have had some players move to them from Highland.
“They knocked up a big score last week, but we managed to get within five runs of their score, which was good.
“That’s a positive, as we had a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old playing for us, so it shows we have a bit of youth coming through.”
Ross County will take on Northern Counties at Castle Leod, with the Strathpeffer side looking to avenge for their five-wicket league loss against their Inverness opponents at Northern Meeting Park last month.
