Rothes manager Ross Jack watches his Speysiders defeat Strathspey Thistle 4-2 in the Highland League and says performance fell way below his expectations
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"The game could have finished 10-8" - that was Rothes manager Ross Jack's assessment of his team's victory at Strathspey Thistle on Wednesday night.
Jack couldn't hide his disdain after what he described as a poor Speysiders' display in Grantown.
"I’ve never been so disappointed with a 4-2 victory in my life," he said
"Both teams were open and for us it was pretty poor. We went 3-0 up at half time which most manager would be happy with but unfortunately we just didn’t play well.
"It was not the kind of football I wanted to promote for Rothes Football Club.
"We huffed and puffed in the second half and it was disappointing to lose the second half 2-1. The three points were the only shining light."
The Speysiders preserved their 100 per cent record away from home in the league, having won at Nairn County and Inverurie Locos before their win last night.
Jack said his team were gifted an opener when the Strathspey keeper punched a ball off one of his defenders for an own goal.
Charlie Macdonald nodded in his first goal for Rothes and captain Michael Finnis did the same to give the visitors a good cushion at half time, but no praise from the manager.
"There’s no way I would be disrespectful to Strathspey because they worked their socks off, as we expected them to do. My concern is Rothes and I was disappointed with the overall performance."
Thistle got a goal back before sub Jake Thomson added a fourth for Rothes, and the home team netted a second just before the end.
"Overall the game could have finished about 10-8 to us, the chances both teams missed.
"The pitch was in great condition considering the rain and the wind had died away so the conditions couldn't be used as an excuse.
"We started sloppily and couldn't get into the game.
"The boys worked extremely hard with their free Saturday and they played very well against Buckie last week.
"There wasn't any tiredness or fatigue."
"We have moved up the league but we’ve got a bit to go yet.
"There’s some games coming up which we are capable of picking up more points in but not with last night’s standard of play which was unacceptable.
"The players agreed with that, first and foremost we need to be far more clinical in front of goal and that’s not just one department, everyone is culpable for not putting away the chances they are getting.
"Charlie’s first goal was a brilliant header and I was delighted for him. He’s worked extremely hard to get into the team and he contributed with a great header.
"Michael is always good for a few goals, he chipped in and Jake was a bright spark when he came on and got a goal.
"But I thought we should have capitalised on the amount of possession we had in the first half."
Rothes next play at home to Deveronvale on October 21.
the Speysiders h
Ally MacKenzie hyper extended his knee and has been out for a while, I think the Deveronvale game will come too soon for him.
Fraser Robertson had had a knee injury and will rest up in the next week with no fixture , he played last night but had to come off 15 minutes into the second half.
Young Calum Cruickshank made his debut coming on for the last 10-15 minutes and he did extremely well.
It’s difficult for me to assess boys in games so I've got to make a call now on how they are doing in training.
We’ve got young Matthew McConnachie, Kenzie Shepherd and Duncan Proudfoot who we got from Caley Thistle who had come on in games and done well.
