Ally Donaldson counting no chickens as Currie seek to stretch lead at top

THE form book dictates that Currie should make a formality of picking up a bonus point victory over already relegated Stew-Mel at Inverleith this afternoon to keep their title challenge on track – but head coach Ally Donaldson was taking nothing for granted as he looked ahead to today's contest.

His side might have slipped up only once this season so far (away to last year's champions Ayr), as they have centred in on recapturing the league title they last won in 2007. And their opponents have endured a wretched return to the top flight after earning promotion at the end of last season and have already been condemned to returning to the second division next season.

But Donaldson also knows that this Stew-Mel team has learned from the painful blows which rained down on them during the early stages of the campaign, and have given more than one of the better fancied teams in this league a run for their money in recent weeks.

"Though Stewart's-Melville are now relegated they will still play with a tremendous amount of spirit. By all accounts they played well away to Watsonians last week and were unlucky to lose. They have also played well at home this year and the likes of Ayr were pushed all the way at Inverleith," said Donaldson, right.

A win with four tries would stretch Currie's advantage over Ayr to ten points, but in reality this two-horse race is still neck-and-neck, as the west coast side will have two games in hand whatever the outcome of this afternoon.

Currie go into the match shorn of four exciting prospects, in the shape of stand-off Matthew Scott, winger Dougie Fife, centre James Johnstone and hooker Alun Walker, who are all away on Scotland Under-20 duty in Sardinia, while at the other end of the age spectrum Andy Adam is missing with a calf strain so Mark Cairns takes over the captaincy. But the side still has a well balanced look about it.

Stew/Mel have also had to ring the changes, most notably in the pack, where Andy Fraser comes in at openside flanker after the departure of Lewis Calder to London Scottish.

In the only other game on the Premier One schedule today, Dundee host West of Scotland in a contest between two of the in-form teams in the league at the moment.

"Dundee are well coached, well organised, and scoring lots of points so this will be a tough one, but we haven't lost since December and we are looking forward to it," said West coach John Beattie.

"West's last outing saw them defeat Melrose and there is every prospect of a cracking game as both teams are playing with confidence," concurred opposite number Iain Rankin.

Dundee (v West of Scotland, at Mayfield, kick-off 3pm): A Horton; M Smith, R Lemon, L Graham, J Fleming; C Ferguson (capt.), A Dymock; N Dymock, J Clark, A Brown, C Cumming, R Cessford, S McKee, G Ryan, D Levison. Subs: D Russell, C Kerr, E Grewar, S Dryer, A Hay.

West: M Sim; A Park, R Dalgliesh, J Kerr, B Wright; C Davis, M McConnell; E McLaren, D McKenna, C Johnson, M Jenkinson, J Walker, D McFarlane, D Young (capt.), G Fisken. Subs: N Copeland, A Hunter, R McAlpine, G Taylor, S Hunter.

Stew-Mel (v Currie, at Inverleith, kick-off 3pm): R Borthwick (capt.); A Cox, H Lingard, C Marshall, C Williams; R Grant, S Ker; J Charles, S Blackwood, A Statham, J Robertson, A Lean, A Fraser, R Sutherland, B Tweedie. Subs: R Merilees, C MacIntosh, C Sutherland, E Clark, M Donneghan.

Currie: S Walker; W Moala, G White, A MacMahon, I Downie; J Smith, R Snedden; J Cox, N Scobie, A Hamilton, S Burton, R Wilson, M Cairns (capt.), J Thomson, R Weston. Subs: A Reekie, M Erskine, G Temple, J Taggart, A Whittingham.