Lewis MacKinnon is looking for a response from Buckie Thistle as he returns to the dugout tonight.
The Jags have lost their last three matches ahead of facing Nairn County at Victoria Park in the Breedon Highland League this evening.
MacKinnon has missed those defeats due to being on a family holiday, which was booked prior to his appointment as manager in May.
Although he was disappointed to not to be at the games he was keen to explain the situation and said: “The holiday was booked in January when I was assistant manager.
“Normally I go away during pre-season, but I was at home during pre-season and at the time I think Graeme Stewart (the former manager) was planning a holiday in pre-season.
“But things changed when I became manager in May and I investigated trying to change the dates and it wasn’t possible because it would have cost thousands of pounds.
“Family time is important to me and when I was away I was never off the phone.
“I’ll never do it again where I’m away during the season. But on this occasion it was booked before I became manager and it was unavoidable.
“Did it have a bearing on the results? I’m not overly sure, maybe it did, maybe it didn’t.
“But that’s all in the past and I’m looking forward to the Nairn game.
“I’ve got no doubt that we’ll get a response, everyone knows that three defeats in a row isn’t acceptable and we’ll be going all out to get a positive result.
“As a coaching staff we can do better and the players can do better as well.
“I won’t single out individuals, but as a collective we can all do better and we want to get better results going forward.”
Ross set to continue between the posts for Nairn
Nairn are set to have emergency loanee from Ross County Logan Ross in goal again due to an injury to Dylan Maclean.
Ross impressed in the Wee County’s weekend draw with Fraserburgh and has already featured for Huntly, Elgin City and Forres Mechanics this term.
Nairn boss Ross Tokely said: “Dylan had a collision with Ross Hardie against Inverurie (10 days ago) and he’s been working with the physio.
“It’s his shoulder and we’re not quite sure when he might be back.
“Logan did well on Saturday, his handling was great. He’s a good communicator and he’s got experience in the league so it’s really good to have him.”
Formartine ready for Fraserburgh test
Stuart Anderson has warned Formartine United they face a battle to extend their eight-match unbeaten run in the Breedon Highland League.
The Pitmedden outfit face Fraserburgh at Bellslea this evening buoyed by six wins and two draws from their last eight league outings.
But manager Anderson expects a tough night against the Broch.
He said: “Fraserburgh are a really good side it’s one of the best and toughest venues to go to in our league.
“I think it’s probably the best atmosphere in the league, playing away at Fraserburgh, and we’re well aware how tough it will be.
“For us it’s about can we go there and put on a good performance?
“It’s a place where you have to earn anything you get, you need to battle for everything and that will be the message.
“I think on our current run the performances have been good.
“We’ve got a bigger squad to choose from now, when we lost a few games we were low on numbers.
“But credit to the players they’ve turned it around and we just want to try to extend that run.”
Cowie encouraged
Fraserburgh’s draw with Nairn County at the weekend was their sixth in 13 league games this term, but boss Mark Cowie was encouraged by the display ahead of facing United.
He added: “We played well at the weekend and the first half was the best 45 minutes we’ve had this season.
“We didn’t take the chances that came our way and you get days like that. On another day you have one shot at goal it takes a deflection ends up in the net and you win 1-0.
“Sometimes you have to hope luck is on your side a wee bit, but I was happy with how we played.
“We haven’t lost that many games this season, but we’ve drawn a lot.
“It’s a mixture of things, we need to be making sure we don’t give up chances at one end, but we also need to find the net with our chances at the other end.”
McKeown pens Turriff extension
Turriff United have secured attacker Reece McKeown on a contract extension until the summer of 2028.
The 24-year-old joined the Haughs club from Huntly in 2022, initially on loan, before making the move permanent.
Since then McKeown has made 87 starts and scored 17 goals as well as contributing 11 assists.
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