Highland head coach Davie Carson knows he needs a strong response from his players following back-to-back losses if they are to keep their National 3 promotion campaign on track.
The Inverness men have been defeated by Newton Stewart and Ardrossan Accies in the last two weeks, with Carson particularly unhappy with his players in the wake of last weekend’s 31-27 loss against Accies, in the first match at the newly-redeveloped Canal Park.
Highland make the trip to St Boswells tomorrow, and having fallen 10 points adrift of leaders Glasgow Accies, Carson warned his side needs to make a quick return to winning ways to stay in contention.
Carson said: “It just wasn’t good enough last week. If we want to be promotion candidates we can’t afford another slip.
“We have had a chat and a really good session. It’s just small errors – whether the occasion got to them last week I don’t know.
“It’s a long season, but if we lose again this week it will make things tough.
“We would be playing catch up.
“We want to show we can get a really good result.”
St Boswells, in sixth, are two points behind Highland and can leapfrog the visitors with a victory.
Carson expects a tight encounter, adding: “We need to show concentration and stay focused for 80 minutes – if we don’t, teams at this level will cut through us.
“It couldn’t really be a tougher challenge going down to St Boswells.
“They are a determined side.
“There wasn’t anything in it last year, we won 25-13 at home in March after losing 15-10 down there last November.
“It was a park with long grass but we will just have to deal with that.
“They are probably similar to us in that they have won a few and lost a few.
“We have a few injury doubts. Sean Blair is 50-50 with a shoulder injury, Callum Carson has a knee injury while Craig Findlater is also unavailable, however Gordon Gregor returns from work commitments.
“We’ve got enough in our side to go down there and get a result.”