MacCormack champions 'hard to beat' Jags despite Brora defeat
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Strathspey Thistle boss Robert MacCormack praised the effort of his players in the wake of their 2–0 loss away to Brora Rangers on Saturday.
The MacCormack era kicked off with a 9–0 thrashing at the hands of Rothes last Wednesday – but the new Jags boss believes his side responded well on Saturday, despite the result.
He said: "I am obviously never pleased to lose a game of football, but we can certainly be a lot happier with the way we played.
"After such a poor result and performance on Wednesday night, the last place you would want to go is away to Brora Rangers, but I thought the boys went out and gave their all. Unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough.
"I felt the way we defended as a team was superb. We conceded from a set piece after 43 minutes which was hard to take. But in general we set the team up to be hard to beat, and we were. We tried to limit them getting the ball into the striker's feet and for the most part, it worked."
Thistle held their own for the majority of the first half, with the back line of Paterson, McDade, Cuthbert, Gilliland and striker-turned-centre half Alan Kerr keeping their hosts at bay.
But they could not prevent the opener arriving two minutes before the interval when a Dale Gillespie corner was steered past Oliver Kelly by defender Millar Gamble.
The Jags made things just as difficult in the second period with some dogged defending as the Cattachs laboured in their pursuit for a second goal.
Brora eventually doubled their advantage though, as top scorer Andrew Macrae connected with a Martin Maclean ball sent across goal to beat Kelly.
Team: Kelly, Paterson, McDade, Cuthbert, Kerr, Gilliland, Austin, Whitehorn, Davison, Logan (Lockett), Loveland (Williamson). Not used: McConaghy, Kendall
The result leaves Thistle 13 points behind Keith and Deveronvale in the Highland Football League table, one game ahead of their nearest rivals.
The Jags must now wait until Wednesday March 8 for their next game – but the manager of the Grantown club has no worries about loss of momentum.
MacCormack added: "I would have liked a game on Saturday to try to build on last week's performance, but we will train as normal this week and I will have something planned for the weekend to keep things going."
