Brechin City boss Gavin Price insists they still have plenty of work to do despite strengthening their position in the Breedon Highland League title race.
The Hedgemen defeated Turriff United 5-1 at Glebe Park on Saturday while rivals Buckie Thistle lost to Wick Academy.
Those results mean Brechin are 10 points clear of the Jags, who have two games in hand, ahead of Wednesday’s clash between the teams at Victoria Park.
Second-placed Fraserburgh are three points behind City and third-placed Banks o’ Dee are a point further back, but they have played two matches more than Price’s charges.
He said: “Everyone was telling me the Buckie score straight after the game, but you just have to get on with the next game.
“We play Buckie on Wednesday and we’re well aware of how good they’ve been against the top teams.
“I’m sure they’ll be wanting to react to Saturday, but we just have to concentrate on ourselves.
“Nothing’s done yet, people have been writing Fraserburgh off, I wasn’t.
“They’ve got points on the board, if they can get as many points as they can then they’ll be a danger.
“There’s only a few weeks left, but there’s still a long way to go.
“There’s always a danger of looking too far into the future with things.
“We’ve got a game on Wednesday and if we can do what we want to do then we’ll be in a strong position.”
City go nap
Against Turriff, Brechin’s opener arrived in the 16th minute. They counter-attacked quickly which led to Ewan Loudon racing through on goal and although David Dey saved his effort, Grady McGrath finished from 20 yards on the rebound.
Six minutes later it was 2-0. Jamie Richardson’s cross from the left broke to Fraser MacLeod on the opposite flank and his driven delivery was flicked into the net by Danny Handling from 10 yards.
After that Turra boss Warren Cummings replaced defender Finlay Murray with striker Ewan Clark as he looked to ask more questions of the Angus side.
Although United didn’t carve out many openings during the contest, they did score just shy of the half hour mark when captain Dylan Stuart volleyed Reece McKeown’s right wing free-kick into the right corner.
Loudon and Handling passed up good chances before Brechin’s third goal in the 48th minute.
Max Foster did well initially to block McGrath’s net-bound shot, However, from the resultant Kevin McHattie corner United couldn’t clear and Handling netted from close range.
Midway through the second period Handling completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot.
Turriff’s Murray Cormack appeared to be shoved down onto the ball in a tussle with Richardson and the visiting players expected to be given a free-kick, but referee Mike Roncone penalised Cormack for handball.
Handling found the right corner from 12 yards and Price added: “Danny did me quite a lot of harm when he was at Edinburgh City and I was manager of Elgin.
“He was excellent, he’s a quality player and a great lad in the changing room.”
In the 80th minute Euan Spark headed home a MacLeod free-kick from the right to make it five.
United didn’t help themselves
Turriff manager Cummings said: “I’m disappointed with the result. I felt we lacked a competitive edge which allowed a good team to dominate us from a very early stage.
“We’re disappointed, I thought we got basics wrong and gave them a leg up defensively.
“You want to contain Brechin as best as we possibly can and make them work as hard as possible to score goals and I don’t think we did that.
“We had a spell for 10 minutes when we scored and we looked like we had a bit more composure to take the ball and be a bit braver with it.
“But that was only a fleeting moment for us.”
