Yet again the topic of league reconstruction has been to the fore of late, and with this comes talk again of a winter shutdown of some description.
Sitting in the stand at Seafield Park on Saturday, the temperature was thirteen degrees; set this against the five inches of snow that covered the park six days beforehand and you have proof positive that scheduling any break in the calendar in Scotland would be a thankless task, and entirely at the behest of our unpredictable weather.
This league campaign has been a real roller-coaster for the Locos but the dog eat dog nature of the competition sees six clubs from sixth to eleventh separated by only seven points, in what is a very congested mid-table.
Strathspey Thistle may now have lost 16 league games but are undoubtedly a tougher nut to crack than in previous seasons, a case borne out by their performance at home to Cove.
The match on Saturday was relatively flat and quite dull compared to last season’s 8-0 goalfest, however there were some real positives as a fan, which could be taken from this year’s ‘measly’ encounter.
As much as it was disappointing to see our keeper, Scott Mathieson – who has undoubtedly been one of the team’s most consistent and best performers – get injured in the warm-up, it did allow able deputy Keiran McCaffrey to step in and he again kept a clean sheet, his second shut-out in his two league appearances this term.
It is great to see Locos defender Keiran Adams back in the midst of first team football after his lengthy spell on the sidelines with injury. It can be especially hard for players to come back from such long spells out, 10 months in his case, however he has came back into the team and was back to his commanding best.
After Saturday’s game at Grantown-on-Spey the Locos are sitting in sixth position at Christmas, with testing games to come against Forres at home on Monday and at Spain Park versus title contenders Cove Rangers on January 3rd.
Merry Christmas to my fellow Locos fans!