Can Buckie Thistle give goalkeeper Kevin Main a fitting finale to his 25-year Highland League career by winning the Highland League and Highland League Cup trophies?
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KEVIN Main wants to bring the curtain down on his 25-year Highland League career with a Buckie Thistle trophy success.
Main turned 40 last week on the day of his club’s 20th consecutive league win, coming from behind to nick victory at Rothes.
And he produced his 20th clean sheet of the season on Saturday as Jags made it 21 league successes on the trot to break Inverness Thistle’s record created in the 1980s.
Main still has a year of his contract to run, but says this will definitely be his final season, and wants to go out on a high.
With Buckie still trailing leaders Fraserburgh by a point, their incredible winning run cannot guarantee Main his third title at the club and he admits it will take a shock Broch slip-up to turn things round.
“If we win 25 games and Broch win the league then hats off to them, they will have done really well,” he said.
“You can’t see them dropping points but if they do, we will look to take advantage.
“They’ve got Strathspey away and Rothes away this week, so we are living on a miracle, and if they drop points then fair enough.
“I just think they are too strong a team to drop points at this moment.
“You just don’t know, it will be a good end to the season and all we can do is keeping winning to give us a bit of hope.”
Buckie also have a Highland League Cup final against Brora Rangers at Nairn to play for next month.
For Main, a league or cup success would be fitting to close a career which began as a 15-year-old in goal for Lossiemouth.
“I’m definitely done at the end of the season. This is my last one, 100 per cent,” he said.
“I turned 40 last week and there’s a new generation of Highland League goalies coming in and it is time for me to step aside and do family time.
“That is 25 years I’ve been in the Highland League now. I’m telling Spider (manager Graeme Stewart) that he needs to start planning without me. He’s not listening though!
“For me, I’ve got five games left – four league games and a cup final.
“The play-offs, if we get there, fair enough, but if we don’t I’ve got five games and then I’m done.”
Kyle MacLeod became a Buckie hero at MacKessack Park last Wednesday, overturning a Rothes lead with a second half double, including a brilliant overhead kick winner on 87 minutes.
On Saturday, MacLeod scored Jags final goal in a 4-0 win at Deveronvale, after Shaun Wood, Jack Murray and Andy MacAskill all netted inside half an hour.
Jags' 21-game winning run has been incredible, but Main knows that a sticky patch of form near the start of the season could prove costly in their pursuit of the championship.
In a five-match sequence of league games between the end of August and start of October, Buckie lost to Rothes, Brora and Brechin and drew with Fraserburgh.
Those 11 dropped points put the Victoria Park outfit on the outer fringes of the league chase, but since the Brechin defeat on October 2 they have won every league match.
"The boys have done well and if we don’t win anything it will be hard luck on us," Main said.
"But at the end of the season if you’re second, you’re second and you deserve to finish where you end up.
"Yes we’ve broken the record for wins in a row but when you look back to earlier in the season when we lost to Brechin, Rothes and Brora, you can’t lose three games to other clubs in the top six.
"Everybody wrote us off back then and that was probably the blessing in disguise for us. They said Buckie were gone and at that point we probably didn’t believe ourselves that we were in it.
"You’ve always got confidence in yourself but to go 21 games winning a run and break a record, the boys have done really well."
So what has been the secret of Buckie's record-breaking run of results?
"Everybody says it comes down to team work and team spirit but I think confidence has been the secret," Main added.
"We go into every game thinking we can outscore teams.
"We have four games left but to get to where we are from where we were, something like 15 points behind - it's some achievement.
"It’s an old cliche taking each game as it comes but that’s what it is all about, and the confidence you build from winning.
"If you are playing well, scoring goals and keeping clean sheets, that’s what can win you leagues.
"We are right up there but it is maybe just going to be our September form that is going to bring us down.
"This league season is exciting for everybody else but for us it isn’t. I would much rather win the league in February and have ten games left.
"It’s exciting for the fans and that is what you want. If we keep winning, you just don’t know.
Nobody thought Fraserburgh would go and draw with Turriff but they did. They then went up to Brora and won last Wednesday so credit to them.
"It’s going to be a good four games to finish with."
