July 15th 2024
DELIGHTED Nairn County boss Ronnie Sharp heaped praise on his players as they recorded a first win of the season with today's hard-fought victory at Keith. Gary Kerr struck the only goal of the game on 57 minutes as County bounced back from last weekend's heavy defeat to Buckie Thistle to record an unlikely away success. Sharp said: "We needed the win after last week's performance. We got the result and I am delighted for the boys – they put in a terrific performance and they just worked from minute one to minute 90. The whole lot of them were tremendous." "Gary Kerr took his goal well and I thought we defended really well. After losing eight last week, we knew we had to up our game coming here because Keith have been doing well over the last year or so. I cannot fault any of the players." "The first half was pretty even but we had the better chances in the second half and could have scored another couple of goals. We had one in the last couple of minutes where we hit the post twice and it was a bit nervy after that but we saw it out. We defended well all day and hit on the break well – we just need to be a bit more clinical to make it easier for ourselves." Sharp re-jigged his defence after last weekend's defeat with Paul Macleod outstanding at centre half while Jack Maclean was restored to right back. The boss added: "The defence was more balanced and they all did really well. Young Jack Maclean came in and did well while Paul Macleod was terrific, as were Calum Riddell and Glenn (Main). That gave us a base to work from and the two boys in the centre of park worked hard. I gave Wayne (Mackintosh) a more freer role that allowed him to get around the park and help Gary Kerr while the boys out wide did their shifts superbly. As I said, we cannot fault anybody." Sharp's side looked far more solid with Stephen Mackenzie stepping in to play the midfield spoiler role to great affect. The manager revealed: "We have been too open in the games we have played, so it gave us more of a base. We are getting used to finding out what players can do. As I said last week, you normally have five or six pre-season games but we only had two. We are still finding out exactly what the best positions are for everyone." "Fitness-wise, we looked a lot better than we have done. We kept going until the end, so that is coming as well." "The players were delighted with themselves coming off at the end, which is superb. They know that they played well in a couple of games and maybe should have got a couple of more points but we will now move on to the next game on Wednesday night." Graeme Macleod
