Kinlochshiel manager Willie Macrae is backing his side to have a decisive say in the Premiership title race when they round off the season this weekend.

On Saturday Balmacara will play host to title-chasing Kingussie, who need to win to haul in local rivals Newtonmore on goal difference and top the table.

In the two matches between the clubs so far this season, Kingussie came out on top on both occasions, but Macrae has full belief in his side’s ability to get a result.

This match was meant to be played back in May, but was postponed due to an unplayable pitch, sending it right to the end of the season’s fixture list.

Macrae also revealed that discussions were had around moving venue to get it played earlier, but with the significance of the result, the answer from ‘Shiel was a firm ‘no’.

“We’ve got nothing to play for, but we’ll be there to win the game,” he stressed.

“We’re up to third now, but nobody remembers who finished third. It’s only the top two teams who have been beating us this year, so we have something to prove on Saturday. We’re more than capable of turning them over.

“We’ve held Kingussie quite well this year, and we were unlucky in the Camanachd Cup, and this time we have home advantage.

“They tried to get us to move the game somewhere, but that wouldn’t have been fair on Newtonmore, and we would have lost a lot of money with it being Kingussie coming up.

“The boys will be up for it on Saturday. We will definitely play our part, and I think we can match Kingussie.”

One blow for Kinlochshiel will be the absence of Scotland international Donald Nixon, who was knocked out representing his country as the Scots beat Ireland in the annual international challenge shinty/hurling match for the first time since 2019.

“He said he was out cold for a couple of minutes, and he has lost 10 minutes of memory where he can’t place what happened,” Macrae added.

“It’s common sense – it would be silly to risk him at this time of the season. It could be life-threatening if something happened, and against Kingussie I don’t think there will be any half-quarters.

“We will have Archie Macrae and Arran Jack back this week though, neither of them played against Skye.

“Our second team aren’t playing this week, so we have some young ones who want to get into the squad for Saturday.

“It’s giving me a bit of a dilemma, and some of them played in the cup game down at Kingussie so they’ve shown they can cope. We know what their capabilities are.”