Kingussie will take on Lovat at Braeview Park, Beauly this weekend from noon. We sat down with Roddy Young from Kingussie to talk through his expectations for the match.

Kingussie are in sensational form, unbeaten all season and are widely tipped as favourites going into this weekend, is it hard to manage the weight of expectation?

I feel as though our form is an indication of are hard work we’ve put in over the recent months. We are playing well but we have to improve coming into games such as this weekend. We don’t really pay attention to the expectation, we just play our shinty and continue to work hard in order to reach our goals for the season.

You’ve really come into a rich vein of goal scoring form over the past few weeks netting in each of the last 4 weeks – just how much are you enjoying your shinty at the moment?

I’m loving my shinty at the moment! I struggled with injury at the start of the season so it’s a big relief to be back playing and contributing within the goals. Although I’ve been scoring I’ve not been good enough in front of goals, something I’ve been trying to work on within the last couple weeks as my finishing has often been poor in previous games. All four of us up top have been contributing to the goals which makes it easier for us individually, we are all scoring in vital moments which has obviously been a big boost.

You scored in all of the matches against Newtonmore this season – what does it mean to score in the Badenoch Derby?

There is no better feeling that scoring, especially against your biggest rivals. All 3 games were very competitive so I was delighted to help contribute to the final outcome. At the end of the day all I care about is winning, if I score then that’s a bonus but if we as a team are performing well and getting crucial victories such as against Newtonmore then that’s what’s most important.

Lovat are the opponents this weekend, obviously they ran you closest so far this season narrowly losing on Matchday 1. What kind of game do you expect from them and what are their strengths?

You always expect a tough game coming up against Lovat and I’m sure this weekend will be no exception. They have vast experience throughout the park and individuals such as Greg that can hurt you at any given moment. They defend very well and transition the ball effectively from defence to attack but I’m confident that if we play our usual shinty and keep the same intensity for the full 90 mins that we will be a hard team to beat.

Do Kingussie have any weaknesses?

I feel as though as a team we don’t have any real weaknesses. We have great squad depth which has benefited us over the last couple of months and our attitude has been second to none. We know we’ve started well this season but we are fully aware that the hard work starts now, this is just the beginning for us and we look forward to taking on these challenges as a team.

A very touching moment between Roddy and his late Grandfather following the 2019 Artemis Macaulay Cup final victory.