Gordonians coach Ryan Morrice hopes a top of the table clash can bring out the best in his side as they make the trip to Hillhead Jordanhill tomorrow.
The National 3 leaders face a Hills side which moved up to second in the table last weekend and Morrice knows despite a remarkable unbeaten 15-game winning run the GoGos need to be at their best at Hughenden.
He said: “We will have to dig in and defend as well as make sure we take our opportunities when they come in the game.
“I enjoy these games and I like the pressure of having to perform. It is matches like this where you learn most about a team.
“We were caught going through the motions at Perthshire (on January 28) and it took us an hour to wake-up.
“At West of Scotland we took a grip of the game in the first 10 minutes and once we got points on the board we were never behind.
“We need that level of performance this weekend.”
Gordonians primed for their trip to Glasgow
Jim Greenwood’s side extended their lead at the top of the table to 11 points with an 82-0 rout of bottom club Royal High at Countesswells.
Gordonians were heavy favourites going into the game but assistant coach Morrice was pleased to see the players answer the questions asked of them by the coaching staff.
He said: “It would have been easy to overlook Royal High given where they are in the league but we challenged the players to ignore the scoreboard and focus on delivering the challenges we set them.
“There were things we wanted them to achieve such as organising ourselves defensively and making sure our work in the breakdown was more accurate and they did that which was good to see.
“This weekend’s game has been on our horizon for a while. While you don’t want to look past any team we felt the Royal High match was an opportunity for us to work on some things after three weeks without a game.”
Confidence high at Countesswells
Their promotion hopes are firmly in their own hands but Morrice knows opponents Hillhead Jordanhill will be treating this one as a cup final as they chase a victory to keep their hopes of catching the league leaders alive.
He said: “Hillhead Jordanhill are in a good vein of form just now and Hughenden is always a tough place to go.
“The pitch is quite soft and we know we will have our work cut out. It’s going to be really tough game.
“But there’s a good buzz about our club at the moment. Our second team is mid-table in their division and scoring a lot of points and the first team is in a good position in National 3.
“Winning games makes for a happy camp and we’ve had a positive environment in training all season within the squad.
“We’re confident we go and get a result but we also know no-one is going to hand anything to us.
“We have to work hard to get a result in this one just as we did at West of Scotland in December.”
