Jack Murray was Buckie Thistle’s unlikely hat-trick hero in their 7-1 win over Turriff United at Victoria Park.
The sides had been level at half-time but Murray notched a treble in the second period as the Jags won to go second in the Breedon Highland League.
Manager Graeme Stewart said: “Jack wanted to keep the ball and I let him have it.
“I think he got all the players to sign it and I can understand why because it’s not often a defender scores a hat-trick.
“He’s probably better with his feet than his head which probably comes from playing in midfield for years when he was younger.
“It was a great performance and we played well. Turriff caused us problems on the break in the first half so we tweaked the formation for the second half and it seemed to work.”
Andrew MacAskill headed Buckie in front from Mark McLauchlan’s cross.
But Turriff equalised shortly before the break, Ewan Clark scoring from the penalty spot after being felled by goalkeeper Balint Demus.
Within a minute of the restart McLauchlan’s strike from the edge of the area put Thistle back ahead.
Marcus Goodall raced through on goal to net the third before Murray scored with two headers and a volley from corners.
Scott Adams was also on target, finishing off a Sam Urquhart cutback.
Turra boss Dean Donaldson said: “First half I thought we were the better team. Our shape was really good.
“But in the second half we lost a goal within a minute and that set the tone unfortunately.
“We lost our shape after that, our goalkeeper and our backline lost their composure, we stopped playing and we made Buckie look good.”
- Elsewhere, Nairn County v Wick Academy was postponed after the Scorries’ team bus broke down on their way to Station Park.
Unfortunately todays match has been postponed due to our bus breaking down and not being able to travel ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/wvzobvxQJD
— Wick Academy FC (@WickAcademyFC) October 1, 2022
