Brechin City maintained their 100% league record with a narrow 1-0 victory over Inverurie Locos at Harlaw Park.
City boss Andy Kirk was delighted with his side’s victory to make it eight wins from eight games.
“The main objective is to get three points on the board every week so I’m very pleased with the victory,” he said.
“I thought we were decent enough in the first half but in the second half we didn’t really manage to get into a style or rhythm that we normally do.
“That was maybe down to a bit of a hangover from last week’s game at Inverness Caley where we put a lot of effort and energy into that match and where we had to work harder than perhaps we normally do to keep up with a top Championship team.
“We also had a few wee niggles so maybe the second-half performance was a consequence of that but again the lads dug in and gave everything they had so I’m really delighted with that.”
He added: Last time we were up here we got bullied but there was never going to be a repeat of that with the group of players we have now. The. players stood up well and fought their corner.
“If I have a disappointment it’s perhaps over the number of chances we missed in the first half and if we’d been more clinical in front of goal, we could have gone in at the interval 3-0 up and the game’s done at that point.
“When you’re only 1-0 up you leave yourselves open to conceding something but we ground out the closing stages well and were worth our victory.”
The only goal of the game came after 33 minutes when a superb 30 yard diagonal pass from Jamie Bain found Grady McGrath who outpaced the home defence before firing home a left-foot drive into the bottom corner.
Locos battled hard throughout the 90 minutes but they were unable to create anything clear-cut in front of goal and Locos boss Richard Hastings was disappointed with his side’s performance.
“When you’re at home you want to win the match first and foremost and I just felt that we lacked the self-belief to do that,” he said.
“The players have to believe that you get out of things what you put into it.
“I felt that the boys failed to give me the fight, desire and togetherness that I wanted and expected from them which is really disappointing.”
Huntly add to Strathspey woes
A James Connelly header and a James McShane own goal helped Huntly record a 2-0 home win against Strathspey Thistle.
After being cancelled out in the first half by the visitors, manager Allan Hale was pleased with the second half showing from his side.
He said: “We were clinical, which we weren’t in the first half after Strathspey started brightly.
“In the second half we had a great delivery from Cameron (Blacklock) and a fantastic header from James (Connelly) and something like that needed to give us a spark.
“Once we got the goal, we stepped on and took control of the game.”
— Huntly Football Club (@huntlyfc) October 1, 2022
In the second half, Strathspey were penalised by referee Lee Robertson after goalkeeper Oliver Kelly was deemed to have handled a pass back by defender Liam Grant.
Ross Still rolled the indirect free kick to Angus Grant whose low shot was deflected behind for a corner.
Blacklock sent in the corner for Huntly to take a 68th minute lead as Connelly headed in his first goal for the club.
The woodwork denied Huntly a second in the 72nd minute. Liam Grant was cautioned for a handball and from the resultant free kick, Andrew Hunter’s effort came off the far post.
Huntly doubled their lead with eight minutes remaining. Blacklock sent a free kick into the near post for Hunter’s whose shot was turned into his own goal by Jags defender McShane.
In stoppage time, the visitors came close to grabbing a consolation when Liam Taylor’s shot came back off the crossbar.
Strathspey manager Charlie Brown said: “I think our inability to finish things in front of goal is costing us.
“The one off the bar late on would’ve been a consolation and had it went in the player may have taken a bit of confidence from that going into Wednesday’s game against Brora.
“I thought the boys did really well. We said to them at half-time they deserved to go in level, if not ahead but again we started to get a grip until a crazy decision has changed the game.”
Conversation