Strathspey Thistle can’t make it three in a row
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Strathspey Thistle’s mini winning run came to an abrupt halt as Nairn County got the better of the Grantown side in tough conditions.
The hosts were trailing 3-0 at the break at a soggy Seafield Park.
They gave a much better showing in the second half and could have given themselves a lifeline but squandered some great opportunities, eventually going down 4-0.
Jack Davison was unable to recapture his fine goalscoring form from mid-season after getting through one on one just after the re-start and having several other good openings.
Assistant boss Charlie Brown told the Strathy afterwards: “It was difficult underground conditions and Nairn adapted to them a lot better than we did in the first half.
“They have improved a lot under Steven Mackay and their players are certainly a lot fitter now.
“The first half was disappointing - we never got into the game at all.
“Nairn coped with the conditions better than we ddid in the opening half.
“There was a downpour at the start of the pre-match warm-up and the pitch cut up a lot as a result.
“The boys could not get to grips with it in the first half.
“But we played much better in the second half and we had three or four really good opportunities to get back into the game including a one on one with their keeper.
“Unfortunately we were unable to convert any of them.
“Jack Davison missed three good chances which normally he would have taken - especially half through through the season when he hit a really good goalscoring run.
“We also had two great shouts for penalties one of which was a blatant handball which the referee never gave and the other one was a pull of a shirt in the box.”
The first incident came in around the 55th and the tug in the penalty area was around the 65th minute of the game - but neither decision went the right way for the hosts.
Brown said: “We needed to take our chances but it was just not to be on Saturday. Jack could have had a hat-trick.
“He was disappointed after the game and he has to dust himself down now and go again.”
Aaron Nicolson, Calum MacKay and Andrew MacLeod each found the net in the first half.
Alasdair Gillies put the cherry on top of the cake with the fourth goal, as Lewis Munro recorded his first clean sheet of the season in goal.
Two more teenagers made their first-team breakthroughs as substitutes following Campbell Macdonald’s senior bow
against Fraserburgh a couple of weeks ago.
With the victory, Nairn County have also removed any doubt over whether they will finish in the top half of the Highland League this season.
Meanwhile the Jags are away at Turriff United this Saturday when they will be looking to avenge their 8-1 hammering suffered last November.
Last night’s game away to Buckie Thistle was postponed earlier in the day because of a waterlogged pitch at Victoria Park adding to the length backlog of fixtures for the Moray side.
