Buckie Thistle manager Lewis MacKinnon says the Highland League champions are struggling to persuade players to travel from Aberdeen or Inverness and have to recruit more locally
Highland League champions Buckie Thistle’s efforts to strengthen their squad have hit a geographical dilemma.
The Victoria Park club has regularly recruited from both the Inverness and Aberdeen areas in recent seasons, and the stature of the club has allowed them to attract the best players from a cross the north.
Their title defence this season has proved to be testing, and they currently sit eighth in the table after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Lossiemouth - see pictures above.
But Jags manager Lewis Mackinnon believes transfer targets are less willing to travel for training and games.
After winning the league last season and earning a massive pay day from their Scottish Cup visit to Celtic, Buckie were expected by many to be bringing in a series of high quality signings to bolster an already talented pool of players.
But Mackinnon revealed that intended targets have preferred to sign for clubs closer to their home base who also possess some financial clout.
He said he has missed out on a high number of transfer moves, and concedes that he may have to assemble a team from a smaller catchment area.
“I’m finding that the market is difficult this season because there’s people who are less willing to travel,” he said.
“It’s nothing to do with wages or money, but a lot to do with travel time. Guys are different now, they want to spend more time in their own town with their families rather than spending an hour and 20 minutes going training on a Wednesday night.
“That is proving challenging if we are recruiting from Aberdeen or Inverness direction, so it means that that focus maybe has to be more on the Buckie, Banff, Moray area for players.
“We do have a high number of players from there now and it is looking like the market that we need to be in.”
Buckie lost two of their best players from their 2023-24 title-winning team when Max Barry joined Peterhead, with both players excelling in the SPFL this season.
Inverness-based Mackinnon stepped up from assistant manager to replace Graeme Stewart in the Jags’ hotseat in May.
Mackinnon played for Caley Thistle and Forres Mechanics in his younger days, making the move to Buckie as a player in 2006.
He joined the likes of David MacRae, Craig MacMillan and Tony Low in travelling through from the Highlands to Buckie for their football.
At that time, big spending Aberdeenshire clubs like Formartine United and Banks o’ Dee weren’t in the Highland League, and North FA sides were struggling to make an impact with even Brora Rangers languishing in the lower reaches.
“Brora were poor back then, Clach didn't have two pennies to rub together. And there were less teams in Aberdeen as well as you didn’t have Formartine or Banks o’ Dee.
“Now you have two very flush clubs coming into the league from that direction, you have Brora in a strong position and Clach and Nairn doing well so it is very difficult now to lure a player to travel an hour and 20 minutes to training and that is one of the big problems I am facing.
“To be fair to the board, the backing is there and any-one I go for they tell me to go for it and try to get it done. But I reckon I have had about 15 knockbacks this year on players, easily.”
