Buckie Thistle manager Graeme Stewart urged his side to be more clinical in front of goal as they comfortably beat an injury-ravaged Wick Academy 4-0 at Victoria Park.
Goals from Joe McCabe, Sam Urquhart, Jack Murray and captain Kev Fraser secured a decisive victory for the Jags as they recovered from a heart-breaking injury time 3-2 loss against Fraserburgh last weekend.
Stewart was delighted with his team’s performance but told his attackers that they must take their chances more consistently if they want to keep up with the likes of Inverurie and Brora at the top of the table.
He said: “I would have taken this result before the game but the only problem is that I think we should have probably scored a few more.
“That’s no disrespect to Wick, I thought we played really well but our decision-making in the final third should have been better and we should have taken our chances.
“Other teams in the league like Inverurie and Fraserburgh are clinical and we need to try to get that clinical streak in us.”
Buckie dominated the possession throughout the game, with Wick missing seven first team players and having to rely on their youth team to field a 15-man squad.
The Jags opened the scoring after only five minutes, with the lively Andrew MacAskill firing in an in-swinging cross which Kyle Macleod headed down for Joe McCabe to volley home.
Their second goal came from the penalty spot on the 24th minute after Sam Urquhart was tripped in the box and the winger stepped up to put his shot to the right of goalkeeper Sean McCarthy who dived the correct way but could not reach it.
The Scorries grew into the game in the second half but conceded a third goal on the 65th minute.
A fantastic run from man of the match MacAskill from the right-hand side had him beat two Wick defenders before passing it into Murray who struck it high into the net.
Wick had a huge chance to get a consolation when they were awarded a penalty after Murray pushed Alan Farquhar to the ground in the box but Herbert made a fantastic save to keep Richard MacAdie out.
Buckie finished the game off in style in injury time as substitute Callum Murray glided past three Academy players on the left and pulled the ball across goal for Kev Fraser to score a tap-in.
Wick manager Tom McKenna said: “We’ve got a lot of big players missing, seven experienced ones out so we had to bring in some young boys so on the balance of that we did OK, the lads never gave up.
“We missed quality at times but I don’t think there were four goals between the teams.”