Forres Mechanics did the double over Huntly for the second successive season with a comfortable 6-1 win at Mosset Park.
Forres manager Charlie Rowley was pleased to see his side pick up their third win in a row after an impressive start.
He said: “With the goalscoring form we’re in, we looked a real threat with five goals coming from midfield. You need your central midfield playing at a high level to get performances in this league.
“We set up a good defensive shape and nullified Huntly’s threat and were able to hit them on the counter attack.
“Coming in 4-0 up at half-time, fortunately we never got complacent and produced a really good team performance.”
With three goals in the first 15 minutes, Mechanics were able to kill the game off early on.
Declan Hughes headed in the opener after six minutes from an Allan MacPhee cross. Hughes doubled the lead six minutes later tapping in after John Farquhar had parried Stuart Soane’s shot.
On the quarter hour, a moment of brilliance from Robert Duncanson saw the former Huntly player create an opening in the middle of the park and he fired in a superb strike from 25 yards.
Eight minutes from the break, a ball forward from Soane found MacPhee and he cut inside before firing low into the net.
Forres started the second half sharply and added a fifth within two minutes when Simon Allan’s corner was nodded in at the near post by Jordan Milne.
Huntly earned a penalty in the 71st minute when Ross MacPherson took Declan Milne down in the home box. Milne converted for his fourth goal in as many games.
The Can-Cans wrapped up the scoring with six minutes left when substitute Lee Fraser turned his marker on the edge of the box before finding the bottom corner.Huntly are still chasing their first away win of the season and manager Martin Skinner admitted their bad start was costly.
He said: “We’ve been scoring early goals lately and got a taste of our own medicine by conceding three goals within 15 minutes.
“The game was dead by half-time. Forres were strong, quick and bullied us and we learnt a lot from that performance.”