Alison Howie, from Newton Mearns, has a secret adviser for ­dealing with the pressure of making a final push for Commonwealth Games selection, which will be announced on Sunday.

Her aunt is Rhona Howie who, as Rhona Martin, won a place in the hearts of the nation 12 years ago when she led a Great Britain rink made up of Scots to the curling title at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.

Rhona Howie was involved again in the recent Sochi Games, coaching Eve Muirhead and her fellow GB women to bronze medals, and now the spotlight has turned to her niece Alison, a 22-year-old midfielder for champions Milne Craig Clydesdale Western and a full-time member of the national team.

The squad must be whittled down from 28 to 16, plus four reserves, for the Games and, with selection day looming, Howie knows it is going to be a tough call for the selectors.

"The Commonwealths is so close now but I can't even look to those games until we've got to Sunday," said Howie. "It would mean everything to be in front of my home crowd in Glasgow, I've been training hard, I came back from a hip injury at the end of last year and am feeling good.

"Rhona's actually a big supporter: she's at a lot of my games and she is really supportive of me. We chat and talk about her success. To have someone like that in the family is fantastic and to see the achievements that she had makes you strive for that.

"Not being selected would be so, so hard, especially as it's a home Games, but you are still part of the success that we will see at the Games. The way we look at it, we are all one team any success will go down to everyone: all the 28 original people in the squad pushing each other from the start."

If the former Craigholme High School pupil gets the nod, she and her teammates can also boast another advantage other than merely just home support.

For the past few months, they have been training regularly at Glasgow Green, the Glasgow 2014 venue, and Howie believes it could give them the edge in the pursuit of a medal.

"We played a series against Wales recently on the pitch and they were finding it bouncy and hard to play on," she added. "We're getting a chance to get used to it by playing five days a week on it so that can only be a benefit and an advantage for us. It will be fantastic to be out on a home pitch for the Games and the excitement is building."