Inspired Highland fancy chances of making cup progress

Highland will be inspired by their opening-round win against Aberdeen Grammar tomorrow when they travel to Whitecraigs in the second round of the BT National League Cup.

The Inverness outfit produced a shock result in August when they recorded a 34-27 victory against National 1 side Grammar, who are two divisions above them.

The Canal Park men are aiming to claim another scalp when they travel to Newton Mearns this weekend to face a struggling side sitting bottom of National 2.

With Whitecraigs’ only win of the season coming back in September, High- land head coach Davie Carson hopes his side can secure a place in round three. He said: “It seems like it was almost a season ago since we played Grammar, it has certainly been an awful long time.

“Going to Glasgow is a good trip and a good match to look forward to. They have not had a great season and they didn’t have a great season last year, either. It’s the type of game we want to get into quite early as they are lacking confidence.

“We don’t want to let them get any confidence by scoring early on, so hopefully we can work away at them.

“We have to try and continue that against Whitecraigs and if we do there’s no reason why we can’t go through to the next round of the cup.”

Carson is without wingers Mike Gordon and Craig Findlater, with Steven Rutledge and Magnus Henry set to deputise, while Sean Blair will return to the bench following a shoulder injury.

Tomorrow’s match breaks up a spell of four weeks between National 3 matches due to the Autumn Tests and Carson added: “The timing is perfect for us. We will have another week off after this so it falls right in the middle, which means we are not idle for too long.” l There are two Caledonia League games this weekend. Garioch take on Highland 2nds at Canal Park in Caley 2, while, in Caley 3 North, Aberdeen Wanderers 2nds entertain Aberdeenshire 2nds at Groats Road.