Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Graeme Stewart not getting carried away after Buckie Thistle win at Fraserburgh

The Jags triumphed 3-1 at Bellslea in a battle of two potential Breedon Highland League title contenders.

Buckie Thistle's Andrew MacAskill, right, celebrates with team-mates Dale Wood, centre, and Joe McCabe after scoring against Fraserburgh. Images: Jasperimage.
Buckie Thistle's Andrew MacAskill, right, celebrates with team-mates Dale Wood, centre, and Joe McCabe after scoring against Fraserburgh. Images: Jasperimage.

Buckie Thistle boss Graeme Stewart played down the significance of their victory against Fraserburgh at Bellslea.

The Jags retained their 100% record in the Breedon Highland League with a 3-1 win, secured courtesy of Andrew MacAskill’s brace and Josh Peters’ counter.

With both sides aspiring to win the league, it is an important early-season victory for Buckie.

But boss Stewart said: “It’s three points, it’s nothing more than that. You can lose the league in the first two months, but you can’t win it.

“We keep going because there are massive games coming up where we’ll need to be at our best.

“It’s just three points and we won’t know how important they are until March and April.

“We had a gameplan which worked. We had most of the ball first half and created chances.

Buckie’s Jack Murray, right, battles with Jamie Beagrie of Fraserburgh.

“We took two and we knew it would be difficult in the second half.

“With the wind and playing downhill, Fraserburgh are very direct, which I like – it’s difficult to defend against.

“But I thought we defended brilliantly.

“You don’t come here and win often. It’s one of the hardest places to come in the Highland League, so I’m delighted.”

‘No fluency’

Broch manager Mark Cowie added: “First half playing against a strong wind we were doing OK and it was quite scrappy.

“But in the space of five minutes we lost two cheap goals, which turns the game on its head.

“Second half we put on the pressure, but nothing was falling for us and it was a bit scrappy with no fluency to it.

“Buckie were a bit better at winning second balls and a bit sharper across the frontline.

“It’s three games into the season and I think folk are getting carried away with things.

“We’re three points behind Buckie and there’s a long way to go.

“Once we hit March we’ll start worrying about where we are and what we need to do.”

MacAskill makes the difference

The opening exchanges were scrappy, but in the 25th minute the Broch almost forged ahead.

Kieran Simpson’s long ball into the Buckie box was allowed to bounce and broke for Ryan Sargent, who volleyed over from close range.

Two minutes later, Thistle punished the miss by taking the lead.

Paul Young tackled MacAskill, but the loose ball broke off Simpson, who slipped, which allowed Kyle MacLeod space on the right.

He calmly picked out MacAskill in the box to blast past Joe Barbour from eight yards.

Andrew MacAskill scored twice for Buckie against Fraserburgh.

In the 31st minute, the Jags doubled their advantage, when, after a spell of possession, Dale Wood swung a cross in from the left and MacAskill ghosted in at the back post to head into the top left corner.

On the stroke of half-time, Wood tried his luck from 25 yards, but Joe Barbour was equal to the effort.

The next goal was always likely to be critical and the Broch looked to get it on 48 minutes when Greg Buchan stung goalkeeper Stuart Knight’s palms from 20 yards.

In the 54th minute, Simpson’s high ball released Scott Barbour, but as the striker went to pull the trigger Buckie’s Joe McCabe got back in to make an excellent sliding block.

Midway through the second half, Fraserburgh captain Willie West looped a header wide after Simpson sent a corner back into the danger area.

Grant Campbell, left, of Fraserburgh tries to get away from Buckie’s Kyle MacLeod.

On 70 minutes, Knight made a good save down to his right to turn away sub Logan Watt’s strike from the edge of the area.

Three minutes from time, Broch sub Connor Wood met Watt’s corner, but his glancing header rebounded off the right post.

On 89 minutes, Buckie put the seal on their victory when Max Barry’s low ball in from the left found MacAskill.

His strike from 15 yards hit the inside of the left post and rolled across goal, with sub Peters on hand to force the rebound home.

In the first minute of injury, Fraserburgh netted a consolation when Watt’s cross from the right was glanced on by Jamie Beagrie and Butcher forced the ball in from virtually on the goal-line.

Tensions stoked

Things ended on a sour note with both sets of players involved in a melee at full-time – which seemed to be sparked by an altercation between Bryan Hay and Barry.

Stewart added: “What I was told was that Bryan Hay aimed a punch at Max Barry. If that’s true it’s very disappointing and he’s let his club down.

“But it might not be true – Max has said it is and I believe Max.

“I didn’t see it, but if a punch has been aimed at Max, it’s disappointing.”

Cowie said: “I’m not sure what’s happened. It’s two teams hoping to be in the run-in for the title and one team has got something over the other one.

“Things spill on to the park and we all get emotional. The end of the game isn’t the best time to do anything.”

Teams

Fraserburgh (4-1-2-1-2) – J Barbour 6, Aitken 6 (Laird 78), Hay 6, Simpson 6, West 6, Campbell 7, Buchan 6 (Watt 63), Young 7; Butcher 6, Sargent 6 (Beagrie 78), S Barbour 6 (Wood 63).

Subs not used – Davidson, Cowie, Bolton, Flinn.

Buckie Thistle (4-2-3-1) – Knight 7, McCabe 7, McHardy 8, Murray 7, Ramsay 7, Pugh 7, Wood 8, MacAskill 8, Goodall 7 (Peters 78), Barry 7, MacLeod 7.

Subs not used – MacKinnon, Fyffe, MacIver, Munro, Keir, Adams, Storrier.

Referee – Lewis Brown 5.

Man of the match – Andrew MacAskill.

Conversation