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Our League One campaign continues this weekend as Stenhousemuir visit what has, for much of the week, been a snowy Balmoral Stadium.

The game goes ahead thanks to Inverurie Locos Chairman Mike Macaulay who braved the wintery conditions with his snow plough and cleared the pitch of a significant covering on Thursday.

It will be a second meeting of the sides this season, the Ochilview encounter, a 3-2 defeat, coming at a time when we were struggling for results and Paul Hartley was still trying to assemble his squad:

“We were really poor second half that day, but we still hadn’t got our team in place, and a couple of players, Reuben McAllister and Liam Parker, had just come in that week. So, we weren’t properly at it then and that showed, but there’s been a big change in us during the time since, and we’re much more ready for this one.

“They’re a good team with threats in the forward areas, and I think Gary Naysmith has done a good job there. They’ll be one of those challenging at the end of the season.”

That is, of course, also where Cove hope to be, and the manager knows that getting three more points on the board will help greatly. He wants a repeat of much of what he got from the team at Arbroath last Saturday:

“What I will be looking for is for the team to perform as it did at Gayfield last week, particularly the second half showing, when I thought we were excellent.

“We need to cut out the mistakes which led to their goals, and we have to hope things go our way at the other end of the pitch, but we have been playing a lot of good stuff, and are desperate to get back to winning ways.”

“The league is so tight, you know that if you get a result, you probably jump a few places and you’re right back up there again. Apart from our four-in-a-row, no-one has put together the kind of run which would see them break clear.

“I did think things might iron out after the first quarter, but they haven’t, and the main thing is to make sure you’re up there in the last few weeks of the season and in with a chance of promotion.”

The news broke this week that Dumbarton had followed Inverness Caledonian Thistle into administration and been hit with a fifteen-point penalty. Paul says he empathises with the plight of both:

“It’s unfortunate, and I feel for them, I really do, and I want to wish all the staff and players all the very best. They’re professionals, they’ll get on with their jobs, but it is a tough situation.”

Fraser Fyvie seems likely to be absent again as a result of his hamstring injury, and Liam Parker is sidelined long term, but Arron Darge could be back in the squad having resumed training following his two-game absence.

Tickets can be purchased in advance HERE

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