Turriff United recorded an emphatic first Highland League victory of the season with a 4-0 win against Deveronvale.
The result moved Dean Donaldson’s men up to 16th spot on six points from their opening 11 games.
The Turra manager said: “We changed formation and a few personnel from the game at Keith because the standards there were unacceptable.
“Dylan Stuart was voted man of the match and I’ve said for a while he is going to be a standout player for our club.
“There are so many young players like him coming through who are so talented.
“They need to take a lift from this win and push on.
“We are a good side, just naive and they don’t believe in themselves enough.
“We had a bit of luck with the first goal but the second, third and fourth goals were all about clinical finishing.
“I demand standards from them, they won’t get away with less than I’m asking.”
Yaaaaaaaaaaas! Finally! pic.twitter.com/NWgmPkVBcy
— Turriff United Football Club (@TurriffUnitedFC) October 2, 2021
The home side took the lead in 19 when James Chalmers’ low effort from 35 yards deceived Sean McIntosh in the Vale goal.
The goal gave Turriff confidence and Jordan Cooper, Kyle Buxton and Rhys Clark all had chances to increase the lead before half time.
The second eventually came after 54 minutes when Clark fed Buxton who cut in from the left and fired home an unstoppable shot.
Two minutes later Buxton found the target again with an angled shot past McIntosh.
The scoring was completed in the 69th minute when Matthew McDonald fired home with his left foot.
Vale boss Craig Stewart said: “That level of performance is unacceptable.
“The management team take part of the responsibility. The game gave us the chance to freshen things up a bit in terms of personnel and formation but it didn’t work for us.
“I didn’t think that group of players could drop to that level so it has to be all about learning.”
Wick prove too strong for Fort William
After picking up their first point of the season midweek with a 3-3 draw at Nairn County, Fort made the perfect start when Marios Avraam broke the deadlock after 16 minutes.
Andrew Hardwick restored parity in the 33rd minute before Wick captain Jack Halliday gave the Harmsworth Park men the lead after 71 minutes.
David Allan headed home the winner to make sure of the points.
Wick boss Gary Manson said: “It was very windy so it was a game of two halves.
“We did quite well to get in at half-time at 1-1 when we were against the wind.
“We were camped in their half in the second half and the only disappointment was that we didn’t score as many goals as our play merited.
“It was good to get the first win.”
Ewen claims point on Mosset Park return
Keith manager Craig Ewen went back to his old stomping ground to earn a creditable point against his former club Forres Mechanics.
Having served as assistant manager to Charlie Rowley at Mosset Park for five years, he made it five clean sheets in eight outings since taking over as Maroons boss.
Although the game remained goal-less the fans were treated to an end to end encounter.
Forres boss Rowley was disappointed his side didn’t claim full points and said; “Overall we conceded chances but created plenty ourselves.
“We are never happy with a draw at home, and looking back we probably edged it on the number of chances we created.
“Keith did have a couple in the second half when we were hell-bent on pushing forward for the winner.
“However, you don’t win games if you can’t put the ball in the back of the net.
“Confidence maybe isn’t what it should be in the goalscoring box, but we are in a better position than we were a few weeks ago.”
The 179th league meeting between the sides didn’t produce any goals, but it wasn’t devoid of action with both goalkeepers pulling off fine saves.
Keith’s Craig Reid denied Paul Brindle twice in the first half, whilst Lee Fraser fired inches past the far post with a low drive.
Brindle had the perfect chance to score five minutes after half-time, but lost his composure inside the six yard box with only Reid to beat.
The Maroons showed their mettle with Luke Emmett firing over the bar after fine play by Przemyslaw Nawrocki, with the latter also hitting the foot of the post. Can-Cans custodian Stuart Knight pulled off a superb save to deny Michael Ironside, and with five minutes remaining produced a brilliant block save to thwart Emmett.
Keith manager Ewen said: “On reflection a draw was probably fair, at times both teams played good stuff on the counter-attack.
“I was delighted with the effort the boys put in, they gave their all.
“There is a bit of team spirit just now and they work hard for each other. Even late on in the game we were still pushing where we could have sat in to get a draw, but that wasn’t our mentality.”
