Brechin City maintained the pressure on Breedon Highland League leaders Buckie Thistle with a thumping 4-0 victory over Turriff United at Glebe Park.
Grady McGrath and Anthony McDonald were the City heroes with two goals apiece in a win which delighted manager Andy Kirk.
“We’re very pleased with the performance and the win considering the games are beginning to mount up,” he said.
“We started the game OK and got a good early goal which settled us a bit.
“Credit to Turriff, they made the game hard, they worked hard, their shape was good and they made things difficult for us.
“Overall, I was delighted with the players both individually and collectively.
“Everyone is contributing, everyone is running and even when we were 4-0 up we were still pushing forward in the 89th and 90th minutes in search of further goals.
“We have a tough schedule ahead, but we have a good group of players who work hard and keep themselves really fit.
“They’re on a good run and are relishing the prospect of keeping that going.”
🔥 𝙍 𝙀 𝘾 𝙊 𝙍 𝘿 ▪️ 𝘽 𝙍 𝙀 𝘼 𝙆 𝙀 𝙍
Congratulations to @mcgrath_grady who, after scoring a brace yesterday afternoon, moved onto 27 league goals for the season. This surpasses the club record of 26 which was held by Ronnie McIntosh in the 1959/60 season. 👏 pic.twitter.com/ix8oIiJcyB
— Brechin City FC (@BrechinCityFC) April 2, 2023
City got off to the perfect start scoring the opening goal with barely two minutes on the clock when Marc Scott played an inch-perfect pass to McGrath who pushed forward into the penalty-box before blasting the ball into the roof of the net.
Turriff made things difficult for City and defended well and it wasn’t until the 62nd minute that the hosts increased their lead when McDonald drilled home a left-foot drive from the edge of the box.
City wrapped up the points 10 minutes later when McGrath was on hand to tap the ball home after a Kieran Inglis shot had rebounded off the post into his path, and man of the match McDonald completed the scoring a couple of minutes from time with a close-range finish.
Turra boss Dean Donaldson said: “Brechin were the better team and deserved their victory, but the boys worked hard and the fact that we’d no centre-halves available made things really difficult.
“However, although I’m not one to criticise referees as they have a difficult job, I have to say that I thought the referee was very poor.
“He made the game all about himself, gave us nothing and didn’t look after our players, which was very disappointing.”
Formartine 2-1 Deveronvale
Formartine United’s long unbeaten league run now stretches to 14 games, but they were given a severe test by Deveronvale before claiming the points with a 2-1 win.
Vale had broken the deadlock after 25 minutes through Dane Ballard’s 15th goal of the season after Ewen Macdonald had brilliantly blocked Zane Laird’s initial effort.
It took the home side to be reduced to ten men when Ryan Spink was shown a straight red card on the hour mark for a last man challenge on Laird to seize control of the game.
Substitute Stuart Smith set up Julian Wade’s 25th goal of the season with the Formartine forward heading home from eight yards after 65 minutes.
Mark Gallagher was given space to crack home a superb 30-yard effort which flew past Sean McIntosh for a goal fit to win any game six minutes later.
Formartine manager Stuart Anderson said: “We didn’t hit the levels we have done in the past few months, but the sending off seemed to get us going and from that point on we were really good and could have scored a couple more times.
“When you are one goal down and go down to 10 men, to come back and win it is a great sign of character which keeps us in the top three with every game providing a different challenge.
“It was a tough game and Vale might feel aggrieved not to get anything, but we did miss a fair few chances late on.”
Vale manager Craig Stewart agreed with his counterpart’s assessment of the 90 minutes.
He said “ Formartine got better when they went down to 10 men and I don’t know if it was a mental thing with my players that they thought it might be easier or just to give the credit to Formartine as they seemed to raise their game.
“They play a very direct game and for most of it we dealt with what was thrown at us, but the way we lost the goals was very disappointing especially their second one as we were very sloppy in midfield.
“It was a great strike, but we have to learn to control these situations better.
“They are a good side who are on a great run, but we look back on the game as another odd goal defeat to another of the league’s top sides – but we are improving and getting a higher level of performance from our young players.”
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