Captain Lennard Bester believes the future is bright for Stoneywood-Dyce, despite losing nine successive games.
The Granite City outfit will try to end their barren run when RH Corstorphine visit People’s Park tomorrow in the Eastern Premier Division.
Stoneywood Dyce won four games in a row at the start of the summer, but their form has nose-dived since.
But with three games remaining, Bester believes his young side can finish their campaign on a high.
He said: “We started the season on a high note and it would be great to end on a high note.
“We have a lot of talent in the squad and I believe in the lads, there are big futures ahead for a lot of them.
“We’ve shown we can do it, we’ve beaten Corstorphine before and there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.
“People’s Park isn’t the easiest place to come and we want to be good at home.
“There’s a new culture forming and a new way of thinking which will take time, but if we win this week we could build some momentum to the end of the season.”
Batting will improve
Batting has been the issue for Stoneywood Dyce. Last weekend, they restricted Stewarts Melville to 200-9, but were all out for 129 in response.
Bester believes they will come good, and added: “In the last three weeks we’ve restricted good teams to roundabout 200 – it’s the batting where we need to step up.
“The fielding effort has been good as well, it’s just the batting and we need to show more this weekend.
“If one of us can go and make a big score with two or three offering good support, we can chase any total.
“You need to bat in partnership, George Ninian and Garreth Wolmarans will open and hopefully they can lay the platform.
“It’s going to be a tough game, we beat them away from home and we expect them to come hard at us to try to win at People’s Park.
“They’re above us in the league table and we expect it to be hard, but we feel we’re ready for it.
“We’re trying to get some continuity and some of the youngsters will get a shot higher up the order.”
Jon Grant replaces Sawan Kumar in Stoneywood-Dyce’s only change.
Aberdeenshire aim to keep pressure on
Meanwhile, in the North-East Championship, Aberdeenshire will look to keep the pressure on leaders Meigle.
Shire, who are tied second in the table, take on city rivals Gordonians (fourth) at Countesswells.
Kenny Reid’s men require a slip up from Meigle to be back in control of the title race, however, that looks unlikely with the table-toppers at home to Perth Doo’cot.
Stoneywood Dyce 2nds defeated Gordonians last weekend and will aim to do the same to Kinloch at Lochside Park.
Huntly, who are tied second, don’t have a fixture.
Bons on top in Grades
Bon Accord are now the hot favourites to land the Grade 1 title after taking over the top slot last weekend when they won a high-scoring game against Crescent, who had been leading the division up to that point.
The two Links sides served up a thriller, amassing 549 runs, resulting in a narrow 15-run win for the Bons.
Middle order batsman Nawaz Mirza who smashed an unbeaten 145, which remarkably included 108 in boundaries, 12 of which were sixes, while the best Crescent could offer was a polished 80 from Shoaib Tahseen.
Crescent captain Nathan Thangaraj said: “The pressure is off us now and there’s still four games to play, plus the Aberdeenshire Cup Final on August 28 when we play Bon Accord again.”
The downside of what had been a great advert for the Grades game was an unsavoury incident late in the match when the umpires had to intervene, resulting in a player from each side receiving level 3 warnings and being unable to complete the match.
For the sake of the game, officials from the two table-topping sides will be looking to ensure their players are on their best behaviour when the two teams meet in the prestigious, showcase final in three weeks’ time.
In the meantime, Bon Accord have a tricky test at home to Master Blasters Aberdeen who have already beaten both the Bons and Crescent on league business earlier in the season.
Crescent host Mannofield, while third-placed Knight Riders meet Gordonians at Groats Road.
In Grade 2, Grampian can stretch their lead at the head of affairs should they go to the Gordon Park and return with the spoils.
Second-placed Siyapa can end the challenge of Fraserburgh in Aberdeen, while keeping their own slim prospects alive.
In Grade 3, it looks all over bar the shouting, given that runaway leaders Methlick are 81 points in front of second-placed 2nd Siyapa and unlikely to lose to their own second team at Lairds – although after the lively clash when the two last met, nothing can be taken for granted.
