Blues look for big response after unhappy performance

Although they won convincingly there last season with their best performance of the campaign, Kirkcaldy in the past had found the Hartreemill ground notoriously hard to secure a win.

The south Lanarkshire side currently stand in sixth place in the National 2 table, three places above Kirkcaldy, with four wins from their seven games as opposed to the Blues’ two from seven.

Last week they went down 20-11 to league leaders Cartha QP away from home.

However, they have won their home games by fairly high scores and this must sound a danger signal to Quintan Sanft’s side who have conceded quite a few soft scores in this competition.

Skipper Liam Neilson, following his injury in the Ardrossan fixture has now undergone surgery on his damaged leg eventually being released from hospital last weekend.

Recuperation will be slow and it remains to be seen whether he will play again this season.

The back five mix last week did not quite hit it off and with no other specialist No 8 in the squad, filling in for him poses a significant headache for Sanft and his coaching team.

After a miserable start to the season Kirkcaldy’s second team eventually had their first win last Saturday against Morgan FP 1st XV.

They face first team opposition this week again when they have another home fixture against league leaders Grangemouth Stags (kick-off 3.00 p.m).