Bring on Formartine United was the message from Cove Rangers manager John Sheran after his side’s comfortable Highland League victory against Turriff United on Saturday.
Sheran, whose players take on Formartine in a Scottish Cup tie on Friday, was a happy man as Cove’s march towards the league title continued as they moved eight points clear of nearest rivals Inverurie Locos and Fraserburgh with a 4-0 win at the Haughs.
Jamie Masson had the visitors ahead after just two minutes before Mitch Megginson grabbed his 32nd goal of the season to double the advantage before the break.
Turriff fought gamely throughout the second period but two late goals from Paul McManus and the impressive Ryan Strachan put the icing on the cake for Cove before they heard their nearest challenges had shared four goals at Harlaw Park.
Sheran said: “Getting the early goal settled things down for us as this is a difficult place to come and get a win and with the pitch being so heavy that could have been a problem. Some of the football we played was first class considering the ground conditions.
“Our first two goals were a delight to see as we passed the ball around before Jamie Masson and Mitch Megginson applied the finishing touches with two great finishes, while the other plus for us was the fact that we were able to get away from the game without any injuries with the Scottish Cup tie on Friday against Formartine in mind.
“The two late goals we scored just finished off the game perfectly for us as it was a very solid team performance.
“Now we move on to Friday as these are the games that everyone wants to be involved with and play in”.
New Turriff manager Graeme Roy felt the scoreline was harsh on his charges as he saw them compete well but had little threat on the day up front.
He said: “The start we wanted wasn’t in our script as we asked the players to keep it tight for the first 15 minutes to try and frustrate Cove.
“When the early goal went in we thought it was going to be a long afternoon but their were plenty of positives to take from the game the longer it went on even although we lost the two late goals as we tired on the heavy surface.
“We are going to address the lack of experience with the younger guys in our team as we had six players under the age of 23 on the park at full time and hopefully they will come on the journey with us as we look to get things moving again.”
