Inverurie Locos captain Greg Mitchell wants to demonstrate the strides they are making when Brora Rangers visit Harlaw Park.
The Railwaymen have won four of their last six matches to move up to 12th in the Breedon Highland League table following a poor start to the season.
Defender Mitchell believes improvements have been made following Dean Donaldson’s appointment as manager in October.
And that gives the 28-year-old the belief Inverurie can cause the Cattachs problems this afternoon.
He said: “I think Inverurie should be competing with teams like Brora and I think we can over the 90 minutes.
“We need to believe it as a squad and we need to implement it on the park.
“I know we’ll be set up to win the game and we need to go out with the belief we can.
“We’re still a long way away from where we want to be, but the early signs have been good, and if we keep going as we are doing, I don’t see why we can’t kick on.
“I think Inverurie is certainly now a tougher game for other teams than it was – the manager has put demands on us and tried to raise standards.”
Cattachs coming out of cold storage
Meanwhile, Brora have played just twice in the last eight weeks and skipper Dale Gillespie hopes a lack of match sharpness doesn’t prove costly.
The Cattachs are ninth in the table, 13 points behind leaders Brechin City – but they have four games in hand on the table-toppers and are set for a hectic second half of the campaign.
Midfielder Gillespie believes they can mount a title challenge.
The 34-year-old said: “There might be a bit of rustiness in terms of match sharpness. We haven’t played for almost a month (December 16) and we’ve only had two games in eight weeks.
“We’ve still been training as normal, so we’re still fit. We may struggle, we may not, but everyone is fit in the squad, so I’m not too concerned by it.
“It’s not an ideal position we’re in due to the call-offs.
“We know we’ll have a lot of midweek games, but our mentality is we want to win all of them, and once we’ve played a similar numbers of games to the other sides, we can review it.
“But certainly at this stage I still think we’ve got a good chance of challenging.”
News from around the Highland League
Elsewhere, champions Brechin City face Rothes in a 2pm kick-off at Glebe Park, if the fixture beats the forecast frost.
Dundee striker Jamie Richardson has joined Brechin on loan until the end of the season. The 18-year-old netted 17 goals in 23 games while on loan at Dundee North End in the Midlands League earlier this season.
✍️ 𝘾𝙄𝙏𝙔 𝙇𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙍𝙄𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘿𝙎𝙊𝙉 𝙊𝙉 𝙇𝙊𝘼𝙉
The intense transfer activity continues at the Carnegie Fuels Stadium at Glebe Park with City clinching the signing of forward Jamie Richardson on loan from @DundeeFC until the end of the season.
➡️ https://t.co/qz4O7GV6G7 pic.twitter.com/UqAtiiBJPm
— Brechin City FC (@BrechinCityFC) January 12, 2024
The Hedgemen also have midfielder Murray Mackintosh back in their ranks. He was previously with Brechin but left in the summer of 2022 for a spell in Australia with Mandurah City.
Heading out of Brechin is midfielder Michael McArthur, who has returned to Dundee Junior club Downfield following 18 months at Glebe Park.
Rothes interim managers Bobby Beckwith and Derek Thomson will be without Ben Williamson, Alan Pollock and Allen Mackenzie.
Fraserburgh are at full strength for Clachnacuddin’s visit to Bellslea. Martin MacKinnon, James Anderson and Calum Ferguson are missing for the Lilywhites.
Huntly are at full strength for their Christie Park clash with Buckie Thistle – who are still without captain Kevin Fraser, but have been bolstered by the signing of striker Liam Harvey following his release from Aberdeen.
Dylan Stuart returns for Turriff United’s meeting with Wick Academy at the Haughs. Gordon MacNab, James Mackay, Alan Hughes, Richard Macadie, Robert McLean, Sean Campbell and Conor Farquhar are out for the Scorries.
