Ian Morrison is hoping for an early Christmas present when he takes Waysiders/Drumpellier to Lanarkshire rivals Strathaven this Saturday.
The Langloan head coach is preparing for a tough battle as the Coatbridge outfit play only their second RBS West League Division Two match since November 3.
The autumn internationals break together with the cold snap means W/D have seen little action so far this winter.
But with games scheduled for throughout the holiday period, Morrison’s men have plenty of opportunities to get back on track.
And W/D’s supremo sees a derby-day victory over Strathaven at Whiteshawgate this weekend as being the perfect way to start a busy second half of the season.
He said: “We have not played much but we’ve done a lot of fitness work and concentrated on that side of things.
“It is going to be a challenging period coming up. Making sure we have enough players is the main priority as I feel we are good enough to compete.
“Strathaven had a very good 17-10 win down at Wigtownshire last Saturday and are just above us in the table so we realise how important this game is for us.
W/D lost 44-13 at Carrick in their last outing.
But Morrison added: “Logistically, we just got it all wrong. It was a bit of a mess and I’m not going to read too much into that game.”