Murray aims for 'good run' in the cup to round off Melvich's season
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It has been another long slog for north Sutherland amateur football hopefuls, Melvich, this summer.
After eight games, the club finished bottom in the second tier of the North-West Sutherland amateurs with just three points to show for their efforts.
But life as at the helm of the county's most northerly and remote football club does not get team manager Alan Murray down.
He said: "Although we have had a couple of heavy results, the biggest thing we can take from the season is that we have a young squad who are improving, which is a good thing.
"We have a few good young players in our squad. Even though we have let in a good few goals, our goalkeeper Rowan Anderson has pulled off some really good saves to keep the scores down.
"Grant Mackenzie who has played in defence has also made a difference and Lee Gordon in midfield has been excellent all season."
But Murray concedes that the travel involved for a team situated some 50 miles away from their nearest league rival has been their undoing.
In May, Murray's men were beaten 14–1 at Invergordon. Just a fortnight later they travelled to Inver where they lost 11–0.
The manager added: "The travelling can be the hard part as most of our games take nearly two hours just to get there.
"It means that you can never get a settled team, as some boys work mornings or evenings, and there isn't time to get down there or back home in time which means we end up a bit short in games.
"We usually get a good bus trip once a year though, which seems to help."
Melvich did pick up a win this season, though. All the more surprisingly, the victory came against the eventual winners of League 2, Tain Thistle, winning by 3 goals to 2 in front of a partisan home crowd.
Murray said: "The highlight of the season so far has been the win at home over Tain. We put in a very good performance that day, and even though we fell behind a couple of times we never let our heads go down and we battled back to win the game.
"We could have scored a couple of more goals too. Being the only team to beat them in the league was good."
Melvich now turn their attentions to the last competition left for them to compete in this year – the Stafford Cup.
Drawn at home in the quarter final to Brora Wanderers, who finished just three points above them in League 2, Murray fancies his chances.
The last meeting between the sides at Melvich ended 4–3 to Brora.
He said: "We have one cup to go with the first game home to Brora. Last time we played them it was a very tight game. Hopefully we can beat them this time then and get into the semi-final.
"A good run in the cup would boost their confidence for next season. The boys are looking forward to it."
The game is scheduled to kick off on Saturday, August 5 in Melvich.
A semi-final trip away to Lochinver or Invergordon Social Club awaits the winner.
