Buckie Thistle 3 Clachnacuddin 2

MARTIN Charlesworth's quick-fire double, his first goals of the campaign, saw Buckie Thistle overcome a plucky Clachnacuddin outfit.

Jags' manager Gregg Carrol said: "I think we were dominant in the second half when we played really well but in the first half we didn't get going and we lost a bad goal, although prior to that we had a few chances as well. We pegged them back but I didn't think we played well at all in that first 45 minutes.

"It was a defensive error again for the goal they got, we got caught on the wrong side of the player and he reacted first to a save from Darren Strong our goalkeeper to score, so we've got to be disappointed with that."

Lilywhites manager Iain Polworth said: "I think yet again the team that we were up against coped better with the conditions. We struggled, they came at us and again caused us a lot of problems, I think they came out with fire in their bellies after getting a bit of a rollicking at half-time.

"We lost a cheap goal two minutes into the second half, we were on the rack and they hit us with a second and all of a sudden, a minute later they'd scored as third goal."

With temperatures plummeting Buckie pressed for the opener but the home fans were stunned in the 26th minute when Clach opened the scoring.

Struan Scott-Woodhouse's free-kick from his own half reached Sam Urquhart surged forward in to set up a one-on-one with Darren Strong, the goalkeeper blocked his effort but Chris Ross was on-hand to convert the rebound.

Two minutes into the second half Buckie levelled, Jamie Shewan slipped the ball to Donnie Munro who crossed for Zander Sutherland to stab the ball home at the back stick.

The home side took the lead when Graeme Stewart set up Zander Sutherland down the left channel and despite a suspicion of offside, he drove on and rifled the ball across for Charlesworth to steady himself and fire into the top corner from around the penalty spot for his first goal of the season.

Within 60 seconds the home side made it 3-1, Charlesworth notching his second of the afternoon, Donnie Munro's volley was parried by Stevie Dunn in the Clach goal and Charlesworth followed up to pass the ball into the bottom corner.

Ten minutes later Clach pulled one back to set up a nail-biting climax. Mark Dougall launched a free-kick into the box from the halfway line, Chris Ross nodded it into the path of Brian MacLeod and he volleyed into the top corner from 10-yards.

Report Benjy Palmer, Press & Journal