Victories over Peterhead and Maud please Buckie Thistle manager Graeme Stewart "but it is only pre-season"
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Buckie Thistle boss Graeme Stewart isn’t getting carried away by his team’s impressive return to the pitch in pre-season.
Jags defeated League 2 Peterhead 3-2 in their opening friendly last Tuesday, before thumping junior side Maud 12-1 on Saturday.
Stewart was pleased with both performances but is keeping his players’ feet firmly on the ground.
“We’ve got to remember is it is pre-season and also Peterhead didn’t have their Glasgow guys up,” he said.
“In saying that, we dominated the game for 70-76 minutes and they never really created a chance.”
Marcus Goodall, Josh Peters and sub Kyle MacLeod netted for Buckie with the visitors scoring two penalties.
“One I’ve watched back a few times and it was never a penalty. The fact that we have scored three against a team like Peterhead and possibly could have had more, and our goalkeeper hasn’t had a save to make, I’m delighted with that.”
Buckie may have a powerful first team squad of 22 players for the coming season but just 12 were fully fit for action when they hosted Maud on Saturday.
Missing five players on holiday and with the likes of Max Barry, Peters and Cohen Ramsay injured, the Jags boss gave others an opportunity to impress and they did not disappoint.
Youngster Lyall Keir, who spent last season out on loan, netted a hat-trick while Scott Adams and MacLeod both scored four goals, and new signing Jack MacIver chipped in with his first goal for the club.
“Lyall was flying on Saturday as was Scotty.,” Stewart said. “But again we’ve got to remember the quality of opposition. Maud is a good junior team but we will face better teams.
“The boys were ruthless and to score 12 goals against anyone is impressive.”
Ever-critical Stewart didn’t like the goal Buckie conceded, but took a positive from it with influential stopper Sam Morrison back on the park following a season out with a broken ankle.
“Sam made his first start in about a year and played 45 minutes. He was good for that time but made a little bit of a mistake from rustiness, the ball got nicked off him and the guy tapped it in.
“It’s good in many ways because it shows he is still a bit away from getting up to full sharpness. He has trained well in pre-season and probably thinks he is ready but I’ve told him he needs to do more work and that game has probably helped him because he knows now he’s got three or four weeks of hard work ahead of him.
Jags host north junior champions Culter on Saturday.
