Buckie Thistle manager Lewis Mackinnon hits out at team’s Aberdeenshire Shield slump to surrender four-goal lead and lose to north junior side Hermes
Buckie Thistle manager Lewis Mackinnon was stunned to see his team throw away a 4-0 lead and exit the Aberdeenshire Shield at Hermes.
The Aberdeen junior side produced the comeback of the season at a gale-lashed Lochside Park, winning at the death thanks to a strike from hat-trick hero Craig Mackie.
For Jags, it was a second cup exit in a week with a third crucial tie to come on Saturday in the Highland League Cup.
Mackinnon said he’s never been part of a team losing from four goals up, but is determined to rally his troops for the weekend match against Fraserburgh and their only remaining hope of silverware.
“The conditions were proper wild but the problem was us, not the weather,” he said. “Losing a 4-0 lead simply isn’t good enough.
“I don’t think it’s happened to me before. I’ve had some bad results and we have lost to junior teams before, and it will happen again.
“We’ve got no god-given right to win any game but we didn’t do enough to win this one and Hermes deserved their win.”
With the wind at their backs in the first half, Jags’ game plan was to build up a big lead at the break and they almost managed that.
They certainly put themselves in a strong position with Jack MacIver’s early opener, then three more goals in ten minute intervals from Cohen Ramsay, Liam Harvey and MacIver again to put some distance between the teams apprroaching the break.
“For 40 minutes it was good, it was 4-0 and we could have had a couple more, I was quite happy with the way things were going,” Mackinnon added.
Then to lose two goals on the stroke of halftime wasn’t good. That was very damaging and it changed the momentum of the game, gave them a boost and put something into our guys’ heads.
“But in that last five minutes of the first half we didn’t do the right things. We didn’t press like we had done in the whole half and we started taking balls in deeper positions and making passes that weren’t on, and we got punished.”
Aaron Angus pulled one back on 41 minutes and when Mackie grabbed his first on the stroke of half time, the tie was back in the melting pot.
Incredibly, Mackie scored again ten minutes after half time and when Ryan Fyffe conceded a penalty on the hour, ex-Huntly man Paul Esslemont converted to make it 4-4.
Fyffe’s miserable day continued when he was shown a second yellow card, allegedly for time-wasting in taking a throw-in, a decision Mackinnon was angered by as he said there would be no way his team would be trying to run the clock down when they weren’t winning.
Hermes then had Joe Burr red carded to make it ten men apiece going into the closing few minutes.
But Mackie pounced in the second minute of time added on to complete the astonishing turnaround for the Aberdeen hosts.
“Had we been able to go in at half time four goals up I think we would have seen the game out but we flogged a couple of goals and that wasn’t good enough.
“We didn’t start the second half well, we started giving the ball away which put them on the front foot and individual errors crept in again.
“The red card was crazy. We are away to a junior team and we’re trying to win a cup game so we are definitely not wasting time.
“Ryan was right in front of me, away to take a throw in and he did take a little bit too long as he wasn’t comfortable in a howling gale to take that throw. But why would he be time-wasting?
“We didn’t pick up the second balls, our use of the ball wasn’t great so it was very disappointment.
“Yes, there’s mitigating factors. On Monday we found out Sam Pugh had to go away with work for the week, and yesterday morning I had two central midfielders call in sick in Dale Wood and Kevin Fraser.
“Then at three o’clock in the afternoon, Fraser Robertson who works for Openreach was stuck in Wick because there were lines down in the weather. So we had four centre midfielders out of the team and we had to play guys in there who don’t normally play there.
“But the 12 players who played last night should have been good enough to go out and win that game.”
Jags don’t have long to dwell on their bad result as they play host to Broch on Saturday - Mackinnon says that’s a good thing.
“I think it’s brilliant that we’ve got this cup game against Fraserburgh on Saturday,” he said. “Games against them are always great, they were one of my favourite teams to play against.
“You’ve got two days to bounce back from this defeat. We will not forget about this result but it will put it on the back burner if we can get it right on Saturday.”
Buckie’s first cup defeat of December came in the Scottish Cup at Clydebank, as red cards shown to Hamish Munro and Dale Wood played a big part in their 2-0 loss.
Both dismissals were later rescinded on appeal, which is little consolation to a Buckie team who also had a strong penalty claim rejected on the day.
“We played quite well at Clydebank but the red card before half time affected things, and the ref missed a handball and then gave the penalty and second red card,” said macKinnon.
“Things went against us on Saturday but it was a far better performance than we produced at Hermes, that’s for sure.
“Those two guys won’t be suspended next season and it gives you a bit of recognition that you were a wee bit hard done-by but the tie is gone now.
This season as a whole it’s unfortunate that we’ve been on the wrong end of some poor decisions.
“We don’t want to go out of three cups in a week so fingers crossed we can go through on Saturday.”
Mackinnon gave an update on injuries in his squad.
“Joe McCabe is out for two weeks, Lyall Keir is getting some pain so he’s not fully fit but Sam Pugh and Fraser Robertson will be back, and we will wait and see how Kevin and Dale are.
“Josh Peters came off with a back injury as well so it’s not easy, but we will knuckle down, work hard and get things going again for Saturday.”
