Keith boss Craig Ewen hopes a run of home matches offers his side a chance of making a move up the Highland League table.
The Maroons, who are in 15th spot, will be out to stem the steady flow of goals conceded when they face visitors Deveronvale this evening.
Their weekend game with Lossiemouth was postponed. Their previous match was a 6-0 defeat to Buckie Thistle last Wednesday, which followed a 5-0 loss against Fraserburgh and a 6-0 thumping by Brechin City.
Those testing quickfire fixtures came after several weeks without any action, so they will be keen to return to form against a Vale side which hit back from two goals down to defeat Inverurie Locos 3-2 on Saturday thanks to a Max Stewart treble.
Ahead of facing 11th-placed Vale, Keith manager Ewen admits the recent schedule has been challenging, but his players are ready to roll.
He said: “We’ve arguably just played three of the best teams in the league and the results have reflected that.
“It has been a tough spell and we’ve had a few issues with getting games on, so it has been a stop-start spell over the last few months.
“We’re looking forward to Wednesday. Deveronvale will come here full of confidence after their great result on Saturday, but we will be aiming to put in a strong performance.
“There’s no doubt the teams at the top are really good and we’ve been lacking match sharpness as well, with games being off not helping our cause.
“We have eight games left and we’ll be looking to get as many points as we can. We have five games at home, so hopefully we can get some results at home, but we’ll just take it one at a time.”
Midfielder Liam Strachan has been recalled from Keith to Formartine United, while Stewart Hutcheon is unavailable and Liam Duncan and Craig Reid remain sidelined through injury, but the hosts should still have a squad of 16 to pick from.
Forres v Fort William is postponed
A spike in Covid cases in the Fort William area led to the West Highland club’s midweek trip to Forres Mechanics being postponed.
Fort confirmed last night they had reached the threshold for positive cases, which forced them into sitting this one out.
The fixture is now set for next Wednesday, meaning Fort’s game at Keith has been shifted to March 30.
Mid-table Forres had been going along nicely under Steven MacDonald since his appointment in late January.
Unfortunately after a recent spike in the local area, we have reached the threshold for positive COVID-19 cases, this means our game against Forres has been postponed
Not what we were hoping for especially after a good result on Saturday😞
— Fort William FC (@FortWilliamFC) March 15, 2022
However, they were knocked out of the GPH Builders Merchants Highland League Cup semi-finals in a 2-0 defeat by Buckie Thistle on Saturday.
Fort William picked up their third point of the campaign with an impressive 1-1 draw at Formartine United, although they still trail Strathspey Thistle by 10 points.
Strathspey boosted by weekend win
Strathspey got their first win since October at the weekend when they were 2-1 victors against Turriff United. They will be seeking to build upon that when Clach come calling.
The Merkinchers, who are 13th in the division, have suffered a few set-backs since beating Fort William last month, although Saturday’s 2-0 home loss to Rothes was the latest in a tough run of fixtures.
Therefore, both sides will kick off at Seafield Park confident they can put another three points on the board.
Rothes catching up on fixtures
Ross Jack’s Rothes have their sights set on finishing in the top four after losing out 1-0 to Brechin last midweek.
In fifth place right now, and 12 points adrift of Brora Rangers, they have three games in hand and cannot afford anything other than a win when they travel to third-bottom Turriff.