This weekend Kingussie travel to Newtonmore in the cottages.com MacTavish Cup Semi-Finals. We sat down with James Falconer to chat about their chances. Stay tuned throughout the week for an interview with Newtonmore star Iain Robinson.

James, first Badenoch derby of the season on Saturday, how are the nerves ahead of the game?

Nerves aren’t too bad just now, early in the week yet but come Thursday/Friday things will be different, nerves are good though

Do you do anything different to prep for these kind of fixtures?

We don’t tend to do anything different no, Neil Bowman might have other ideas right enough

4 goals in 5 MOWI Premiership games this season, are you feeling back in the kind of form that saw you top the 2021 scoring charts?

Yeah pretty happy with the start to the season and current form, as long as I can stay away from injuries then I’m hoping i can be up there as top, but as long as someone in the team is scoring then I’m happy.

What do you think Newtonmore’s strengths are going into Saturday?

One of Newtonmore main strengths have always been Rory Kennedy at full back, he’s a cracking player and reads the game well. So we will need a game plan for that

Being Grand-Slam Champions comes with a target on your back I suspect, what would it mean to make it to the final and have a chance to defend the cottages.com MacTavish Cup?

We are well aware of the target on our back but I think that motivates us more to win, it would mean a lot to make it to my first final as captain as it’s our cup to defend so hopefully the boys are well up for this Saturday

Finally, September 2022, Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Final, at The Dell, you score in the 88^th minute to win the game for Kingussie and make yourself a hero, just how did that feel?

It was up there as one of the best feelings so far in my career, I was lucky to have even been part of the squad after the injury in the semi, so to come on and score was unreal, something I’ll remember for the rest of my days.