November 20th 2023
THERE was not an awful lot for manager Les Fridge to be disappointed about following last night's win at Strathspey Thistle with his players putting in what was their best performance of the season, writes Graeme Macleod. The boss felt his team picked up from where they left off in Saturday's home derby win as they failed to let Strathspey settle before overwhelming the Jags with a barrage of goals. Fridge said: "I thought it was very good, the second half especially. We continued from where we left off on Saturday in terms of our attitude, which I thought was very good. We played some really good football and scored some good goals." "We have struggled here over the last couple of years, only winning by the odd goal on occasions, so it was nice to come down here and get such a convincing win tonight." It may be looked upon as a result that County should be earning by default given Strathspey's position in the league but the visitors worked hard and impressed with ability to win the ball back in Strathspey's half by forcing the home players into playing hopeful long passes or make mistakes. Fridge revealed: "We have been working on things to try to press higher up the park and squeeze the game a bit more and I thought we did that today. I also thought we played some really good football at times too." Fridge saw four different players find the net, all of whom occupied attacking positions during the match with Robbie Duncanson (2), Conor Gethins, Tony Wallace (2) and Sam Urquhart on the score sheet. The manager added: "When you look at the middle to front options that we have, there are goals there and when we are playing well and with a bit of confidence, you have just seen what we are capable of. It was good for us to get another clean sheet as well." County move on to Saturday's game at Inverurie Locos before having a full week to prepare for the North of Scotland Cup final against Wick Academy on November 21st. Fridge said: "We have had a lot of games over the last few weeks having played Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday and then Saturday again. We will have played five games in the last two weeks after Saturday's game at Inverurie, so winning well tonight allowed me to make subs earlier, which meant that boys who have played a lot of football lately could have a bit of a rest and we could freshen things up a wee bit too." Graeme Macleod
