The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Wick fail to stop Locos in their tracks
WICKACADEMY INVERURIE LOCOS 1 3
Inverurie Locos finished their campaign on a high with a 3-1 victory at Wick Academy thanks to late goals from Chris Angus and Martin Laing.
The result leaves Locos eights points ahead of third-place Formartine United, who still have three games remaining.
Inverurie manager Neil Cooper said: “It was a great result for the lads as Wick had been on an excellent run and they beat Fraserburgh 4-0 up here last weekend.
“We knew that it was going to be a really hard game.
“It was a beautiful day to play football but the pitch was bobbly and that made it very difficult to get a passing game going.”
Academy manager Tom McKenna felt the eventual result was harsh on his side and felt it had done enough to take a point.
“I felt the 3-1 defeat wasn’t a true reflection on the game”
He said: “We had only lost one game in the last 15 and I think we did well to contain a very good Locos side.
“I felt the 3-1 defeat wasn’t really a true reflection on the game.
“If I am going to be totally honest, I feel that three errors by ourselves cost us the points and that 1-1 would have been a fairer result really over the piece.
“When you face teams of Locos’ calibre, they are going to capitalise if you make any errors as they have the quality to punish you.
“I was pleased that we managed to create a few chances of our own.”
Locos opened the scoring in the 44th minute when Jordan Leyden set up Angus to score but Michael Steven equalised in the 58th minute with a header.
Angus fired Locos ahead with eight minutes left and Laing made it 3-1 in stoppage time.
BUCKIE THISTLE LOSSIEMOUTH
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uckie Thistle manager Graeme Stewart believes his team will be back to its best next season.
As Cove powered to the Highland League title, defending champions Thistle endured a frustrating campaign largely due to long-term injuries suffered by key players.
The Jags rounded off an inconsistent season, where they will finish close to the seventh spot they currently occupy, with a convincing victory against Lossiemouth.
With Buckie having played all their games, Stewart is already looking ahead to next term and plans on making it another successful one.
He said: “It has been very disappointing but I am looking forward to next season already and I am confident it will be totally different.
“No one could have envisaged we’d have all these injuries. Next year we will get them back and we will sign players.
“We want to be up there challenging and we will be up there challenging.
“Hamish Munro, Kevin Fraser, John McLeod and Sam Urquhart – they were our four best players last season. We have lost our four best players to injury and any club that did that – Cove or Brora, for example – would be struggling. If everyone was fit the squad would be stronger now than it has been.”
The pool of players at Victoria Park continues to evolve from the group that won the title last season. The most notable departure was Chris Angus, who signed for Inverurie Locos last November, having scored 28 goals in the previous campaign for the Jags. However, Stewart insists that his Buckie squad next season is going to be better than ever.
He said: “No one leaves this club unless I want them to. It’s the biggest and best club in the league. They wanted to stay but we had to move them on because we need to move forward. We’ve a better squad now and we’ll have an even better squad next season.”
Buckie opened the scoring in the 22nd minute against Lossiemouth with a low strike from 10 yards out by Jay Cheyne.
The hosts doubled their advantage on the half-hour mark thanks to a thumping halfvolley from Andrew MacAskill.
Lossie had chances to find the back of the net but were left to rue some wasteful finishing.
The Coasters were made to pay for their profligacy early in the second half when Steven Ross scored a well-taken double to put Buckie well in control.
Buckie added a fifth goal to their tally in the 75th minute as two substitutes combined when Declan Milne turned home a low cross from Stuart Taylor.
The home team completed its scoring late on with a composed finish from the impressive MacAskill.
Lossiemouth manager Ian MacRae was frustrated by slack play at both ends of the park from his side.
He said: “That is a decent Buckie team. But we had just as many chances as they did. Defensively, we made them look better than they are.
“We’ve a lot of young lads in the team and the need to learn from the experience from playing sides like Buckie.”
“I am looking forward to next season already”