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| ANNAN TRAVEL NORTH FOR SHIELD ENCOUNTER by Iain Grant |
| Fri 20th Feb 2009 |
Annan drew the short straw among the 16 teams in the Scottish Hydro Electric Shield in being paired away to Caithness.
The south-west outfit last made the gruelling trek three seasons ago when they met the Greens in National League Division 2.
Given their prodigious travelling commitments in the league, Caithness are delighted to have landed a third successive tie at home.
Annan may be excused if the cup mission does not feature at the top of their priorities given their current precarious league position.
Third bottom of NLD1, they also very short of live action with a combination of waterlogged and frozen pitches meaning they have played just twice since the end of November.
Annan have a notable NLD history after they switched allegiance from the Borders District League to the Glasgow District League.
Seven successive championships took them to NLD2 in 1998 with the club’s finest season coming four years later when then reached Premiership 3 and won the BT Bowl.
The Amber-and-Blacks have since been in yo-yo mode, arresting two demotions with a return to NLD 1in 2006/07.
Annan were drafted into the shield after going down 69-13 to Premiership 1 heavyweights Currie in the fourth round of the main competition.
Caithness go into tomorrow’s clash in reasonable shape with prop Lorne MacNicol returning and winger-cum centre James ‘Pop’ Sinclair back from as stint offshore. Utility back David McCarthy is also available to rejoin the squad.
With Graham Fryer offshore, Kris Hamilton – who has been selected to play for Scotland under-19s in their forthcoming match versus Italy - will revert to his favoured position of scrum-half.
Coach Jim MacMillan said: “We’ll probably be about as strong as we can be in the forwards and we should have a decent back division.
“They will start favourites as they are playing a league above us but we seem to perform better against the top-end teams.
“They haven’t had many games lately and I’m sure they won’t be looking forward to the long trip up.
“We’ll be aiming to take the game to them and get in about them in the first 20 minutes. Getting a win would be great as it would help keep our season going.”
Caithness bowed out of the cup with a gutsy 18-8 defeat at the hands of Premiership 2 side Dundee High School FPs.
The Greens are bidding for a third successive win, which is something they have not achieved since this time last season.
Tomorrow’s match kicks off at 2 p.m.
* Kilmarnock jumped a place and moved just two points shy of Caithness with a 13-7 win over Stewartry in the only league game played last Saturday.
The Castle Douglas men’s third narrow defeat in a row leaves them hoevering just above the drop zone.
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| Hawick YM |
2 |
10 |
| Kilmarnock |
2 |
9 |
| Waysiders Drumpellier |
2 |
9 |
| Glasgow Accies |
2 |
7 |
| Berwick |
2 |
6 |
| Annan |
2 |
5 |
| Highland |
2 |
5 |
| Aberdeenshire |
2 |
4 |
| Stewartry |
2 |
4 |
| Caithness |
2 |
3 |
| Newton Stewart |
2 |
1 |
| Alan Glens |
2 |
0 |
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| 1st XV Season (2010/11) |
| Caithness 25 - 27 Kilmarnock |
| 4th Sep 10 - KO: 15:00 |
| Venue: Millbank |
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| 1st XV Season (2010/11) |
| Stewartry vs Caithness |
| 11th Sep 10 - KO: 15:00 |
| Venue: Greenlaw |
| :: More Fixtures |
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