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.

Gavin Price not getting carried away despite Brechin City being in strong position in pursuit of Highland League title

The Hedgemen remain at the top of the table after beating Turriff United 5-1.

Danny Handling completes his hat-trick for Brechin City against Turriff United from the penalty spot. Pictures by Kenny Elrick/DCT Media.
Danny Handling completes his hat-trick for Brechin City against Turriff United from the penalty spot. Pictures by Kenny Elrick/DCT Media.

Brechin City boss Gavin Price insists they still have plenty of work to do despite strengthening their position in the Breedon Highland League title race.

The Hedgemen defeated Turriff United 5-1 at Glebe Park on Saturday while rivals Buckie Thistle lost to Wick Academy.

Those results mean Brechin are 10 points clear of the Jags, who have two games in hand, ahead of Wednesday’s clash between the teams at Victoria Park.

Second-placed Fraserburgh are three points behind City and third-placed Banks o’ Dee are a point further back, but they have played two matches more than Price’s charges.

He said: “Everyone was telling me the Buckie score straight after the game, but you just have to get on with the next game.

“We play Buckie on Wednesday and we’re well aware of how good they’ve been against the top teams.

“I’m sure they’ll be wanting to react to Saturday, but we just have to concentrate on ourselves.

“Nothing’s done yet, people have been writing Fraserburgh off, I wasn’t.

Brechin boss Gavin Price.

“They’ve got points on the board, if they can get as many points as they can then they’ll be a danger.

“There’s only a few weeks left, but there’s still a long way to go.

“There’s always a danger of looking too far into the future with things.

“We’ve got a game on Wednesday and if we can do what we want to do then we’ll be in a strong position.”

City go nap

Against Turriff, Brechin’s opener arrived in the 16th minute. They counter-attacked quickly which led to Ewan Loudon racing through on goal and although David Dey saved his effort, Grady McGrath finished from 20 yards on the rebound.

Six minutes later it was 2-0. Jamie Richardson’s cross from the left broke to Fraser MacLeod on the opposite flank and his driven delivery was flicked into the net by Danny Handling from 10 yards.

After that Turra boss Warren Cummings replaced defender Finlay Murray with striker Ewan Clark as he looked to ask more questions of the Angus side.

Brechin’s Danny Handling celebrates scoring.

Although United didn’t carve out many openings during the contest, they did score just shy of the half hour mark when captain Dylan Stuart volleyed Reece McKeown’s right wing free-kick into the right corner.

Loudon and Handling passed up good chances before Brechin’s third goal in the 48th minute.

Max Foster did well initially to block McGrath’s net-bound shot, However, from the resultant Kevin McHattie corner United couldn’t clear and Handling netted from close range.

Midway through the second period Handling completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot.

Turriff’s Murray Cormack, right, which led to him being penalised for handball.

Turriff’s Murray Cormack appeared to be shoved down onto the ball in a tussle with Richardson and the visiting players expected to be given a free-kick, but referee Mike Roncone penalised Cormack for handball.

Handling found the right corner from 12 yards and Price added: “Danny did me quite a lot of harm when he was at Edinburgh City and I was manager of Elgin.

“He was excellent, he’s a quality player and a great lad in the changing room.”

In the 80th minute Euan Spark headed home a MacLeod free-kick from the right to make it five.

United didn’t help themselves

Turriff manager Cummings said: “I’m disappointed with the result. I felt we lacked a competitive edge which allowed a good team to dominate us from a very early stage.

“We’re disappointed, I thought we got basics wrong and gave them a leg up defensively.

Turriff’s Warren Cummings.

“You want to contain Brechin as best as we possibly can and make them work as hard as possible to score goals and I don’t think we did that.

“We had a spell for 10 minutes when we scored and we looked like we had a bit more composure to take the ball and be a bit braver with it.

“But that was only a fleeting moment for us.”