Buckie Thistle manager Lewis Mackinnon is delighted by the impact made by Elgin City loan forward Fin Allen after four goals in four games sparks a run of form for Victoria Park side
Buckie Thistle are bringing the best out of Elgin City loan striker Fin Allen.
That’s the view of Jags manager Lewis Mackinnon after seeing the 20-year-old maintain his goal-a-game record for his temporary employers in Saturday’s 2-0 Highland League victory at Nairn County.
It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that Buckie have equalled their best undefeated run of a difficult campaign since Elgin farmed Allen out to Victoria park for the rest of the term.
His 18th minute strike at Station Park made it four goals in the four games he has played for Jags, and MacKinnon couldn’t be more pleased.
“Fin’s been really good, not just the goals,” said the Buckie boss. “He's a nice lad and he’s been good for the squad.
“Overall, as a footballer, he's really good. He can play with his back to goal, he can play on the shoulder and he drops in and he can pick passes. He's good in the air as well.
“He ticks a lot of boxes and I've been really impressed with him since he's come in.”
MacKinnon quickly identified that Allen, who has featured for Elgin as a midfielder and wide player, has all the right attributes to play as a central striker.
“I think he's well suited for that role. You can see he could probably drop in at the number 10 or play off either side as well.
“But utilising him through the middle has proved to be successful in the last few games. Alongside Aaron (Nicolson) he has actually struck up not a bad partnership.”
Jags are now on a four game unbeaten run, after Allen’s goal and a good finish by Lyall Keir just before half time cemented Saturday’s victory.
Mackinnon is pleased to see Keir firing on all cylinders, scoring his 11th goal of the season after an injury-hit campaign.
“He's looking really good again. He's doing well both ways as he defends really well and he gets forward as well.” Mackinnon added.
“His feet are tremendous. He's so fast with the ball at his feet and he got his just rewards with a good goal on Saturday.
“He took the ball down really well, held off the defender and composed himself to round the goalie and it was a good finish from him.”
A centre back for much of his own playing career, Mackinnon was equally satisfied to see Jags pick up their first clean sheet of 2025 - their last was at Wick on December 28.
“We're playing some good stuff just now, and it was good to get the win and the clean sheet - very pleasing.
“We haven't had enough of them this season, and I think we should have had more.
“We've controlled a lot of games, but given away stupid goals, as I've probably said many times.
“On Saturday (against Nairn) we were playing against a good strike force with a lot of pace and quality in that forward line.
“So to nullify them in the times they did break through was pleasing.”
Buckie face two games this week against teams at opposite ends of the table, a visit to lowly Strathspey Thistle on Wednesday before hosting high-scoring league leaders Brora Rangers on Saturday.
“It’s two interesting games and this league always gives you different challenges.
“We've got a decent sized squad just now, so we'll utilise that squad. We might freshen things up on Wednesday with Saturday in mind, and that’s not meant as any disrespect to Strathspey.”
Centre back Innes McKay was rested on Saturday after picking up a slight injury in training during the week
“Our squad is good enough to take two or three boys out and put two or three in. So we'll be doing that this week to try and keep it as fresh as possible.”
Mackinnon hinted that his second Elgin City loan player Ryan MacLeman, might start in midweek as he continues to work back towards full fitness after an injury-dogged campaign at Borough Briggs.
