December 5th 2023
The end of season 2021/22 saw a number of fixtures where several older players had moved up to the Reserves Team, which meant some much younger players became part of a squad that had many players older than them and gave them valuable experience that helped them discover what was needed to play at this age group.
We finished last season in eighth place in the 11-team Highland League (North) with goalkeeper Reid Peterkin and midfielder Robbie Lean moving up to the Reserves Team in the summer.
This season, we have also seen Scott Stewart, Will Jack, Max Scott, Charlie Rae and Campbell MacDonald called up to the Reserves Team to play in a league that offers a more physical challenge than they have ever faced. Hopefully, we will see more of our older players progressing into the Reserves Team during the course of the second half of the season.
Both coaches moved on after last season ended and we thank Stephen Grant and Craig Mackenzie for everything they did to help these young players improve all aspects of their game over a number of years.
The second half of 2022 began with a search for new coaches and we were delighted when Wayne Mackintosh and Jamie McGowan took over and from early on, worked the players hard in pre-season and offered open trials to help add new players to those who remained from the previous season.
The players responded positively and a number of good results have come along as well as many positive performances.
We started the season with a 5-0 home win over Buckie Thistle thanks to goals from Ross Murphy, Calum Young, Campbell MacDonald, Max Scott and an own goal before Scott scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 home win over Forres Mechanics in September.
There was another clean sheet for goalkeeper Liam Mackenzie in the 3-0 win at Rothes with Joshua Stephenson, Rueben Green and Murphy grabbing the goals and although we lost back-to-back games to Inverness Athletic and Wick Academy, we bounced back to win 2-0 away at home to Keith with Taylor Lawson and Stephenson on target.
Goals from Euan Dawson, Scott and Murphy ensured a 3-1 win away at St Duthus and we made it consecutive away wins with Scott (2) and Jack McCormick scoring in a 3-0 victory at Buckie Thistle.
A 2-0 win a home to Alness United thanks to a Young double briefly put us top of the league but we ended the year in fourth place just a point off the summit.
