Home   Sport   Article

PICTURES from Buckie Thistle's 10-0 thrashing of Keith which drew sympathy from Jags boss Graeme Stewart towards his Maroons counterparts Tommy Wilson and Andy Roddie


By Craig Christie

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

THE biggest win of Graeme Stewart’s career had the Buckie Thistle boss sympathising with a Keith side on the receiving end of a 10-0 hiding.

In a demolition derby at Victoria Park on Saturday, Jags were 7-0 up by half-time before clocking up double figures.

The result led to the departure of Andy Roddie and Tommy Wilson as Keith co-managers after the match.

“I can remember we scored nine against Strathspey when we won the league, but I can’t remember a 10,” said Stewart. “We conceded nine at Formartine the year before, and that was the lowest point for me.

“So I felt quite uncomfortable once it got to five and six. I felt for the Keith team, and I know their management team I played with Tommy, and he comes from Bridge of Don, the same area as me.

“It’s horrible when you’re on the wrong end of a result like that, and I wouldn’t want to see anybody go through it, so as a fellow manager I felt for them.

“At the same time, it was a great performance from us. We were probably going to do this to someone soon because we were creating so many chances in our games.”

Keith were missing a string of players for the contest and were forced to field six players under the age of 21, including 17-year-old debut keeper Kyle Irvine.

Irvine was picking the ball out of the net after just three minutes when Adam MacLeod scored, and by the half hour mark Sam Morrison, Kevin Fraser, MacLeod again and Sam Urquhart had added to the tally.

Urquhart's second and an Andrew MacAskill strike overwhelmed the Maroons and sent Buckie in at the break with a 7-0 lead.

Keith stemmed the flow in the second half but were hit by a setback when 18-year-old Kian McCredie picked up two yellow cards and was sent off.

Ex-Keith man Sam Pugh had a goal disallowed before adding goal number eight.

Buckie kept pushing for goals with MacAskill hitting the bar then cracking a post with a free kick.

Late on, Jags sub Callum Murray added the ninth before Keith were reduced to nine men when Tom Andrews got a second yellow after an altercation with Mark McLauchlan.

Urquhart completed his hat-trick to hammer the final nail in the Maroons' coffin - their biggest-ever defeat to their Banffshire neighbours.

Stewart praised two-goal summer signing MacLeod, but lamented the knee injury which saw him limp off before half-time.

The full extent of the injury is not clear, but MacLeod will miss Wednesday’s SPFL Trust Trophy trip to Brechin City and Saturday’s league derby against Deveronvale.

"Adam made a big difference," Stewart said. "He came off injured with his knee and he says he feels a bit better on Sunday so fingers crossed it’s nothing serious."

The result puts Buckie top of the Highland League with three wins out of three and 19 goals scored, with none conceded.

It's a position Stewart is thrilled with but he knows it is very early days in the campaign.

It’s a dream start to the league and we hope we can carry it on.

"We know we are going to have sticky points, you know you aren’t going to just keep winning games. I’ve played and managed in the Highland League for 20 years and whenever you think you’re flying high - boom, someone knocks you down.

"We want to continue on this form just now and when we get sticky points we want to come through them.

"We are not going to win 10-0 every week, we would happily take a 1-0 against Deveronvale on Saturday.

"The grind-out wins are normally the ones that see you getting success at the end of the season, every successful team I’ve been involved in have been able to grind out 1-0 wins at Fort William or Huntly and that’s where you end up winning things."


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More