Huntly striker Angus Grant completed special February after birth of baby daughter with 30th goal of Highland League season and Christie Park record in his sights

Huntly goal machine Angus Grant celebrated the birth of his baby daughter by scoring his 30th goal of the Highland League season - and there’s more to come.

Grant was overjoyed when his partner Ashleigh gave birth to their daughter Aria two weeks ago, and found the perfect way to mark the occasion on a football field.

With Huntly not having a match in almost a month, Saturday’s home game against Formartine United meant a return to action at a place where their star striker simply loves scoring goals.

He had netted in his previous 11 fixtures there and made it 12-in-a-row with a superb double to clinch a 2-0 Black and Golds’ victory and clock up 30 goals for the campaign in the process.

“That was the first game I played since my little princess was born, so I was delighted to get a couple of goals, “ he said.

“I did a wee celebration for her when I scored the first one. Then to get a second one for my wee boy Noah, who’s three in June, that just made it a great day.”

Grant says he has broken through the 30-goal barrier in 26 appearances this season, and his record of netting in 12 consecutive home matches will take some beating.

With him averaging better than a goal-a-game for the Christie Park side and still 13 games to go this season, the sky’s the limit when it comes to guessing how many the Aberdonian will finish up with - but it might even end up being a club record.

It’s believed that Brian Thomson may have scored close on 50 in one season during the club’s five-in-a-row title surge.

As it happens, Saturday’s match was an extra-special occasion for the club as the title-winning squad from Huntly’s last Highland League championship triumph 20 years ago was invited to attend.

That team included Huntly’s record goalscorer of all-time, Martin Stewart who won countless honours with the club including those five consecutive league glories.

A recent interview with Stewart revealed that he doesn’t hold the record for most Huntly goals in a season, but he believes that five-in-a-row team-mate Brian Thomson held the campaign best, and that may be the mark Grant now has to beat.

“You can probably work out for yourself what I’m aiming for,” Grant said. “Getting the very high numbers is obviously very difficult but it’s something to go for.

“We’ve got 13 games to go and I'm wanting to score every game that we play for the rest of the season.

“I realise that you can’t score in every single game you play, but at the end of the day, that's the targets that I set myself and the high standards that I've got for myself.

“That's how I'm going into every game, thinking I'm going to score. That’s how I want to carry on my season and see where it takes me.”

Grant was thrilled to see his team return to action with a fine result against another team challenging for the top six.

“It was really pleasing for us to not have a game for so long and put in such a good performance.

“I'm just looking forward to the rest of the games now and I'm looking forward to us catching up on games. I think it'll be good for me as well because it's momentum.

“It's been a really good season so far and as far as I'm concerned, I'm not one to let up.

“My previous best for goals was 17, so now that I'm on 30, I'm having a great season. I'm just enjoying it.”

He knew on Saturday that a couple of goals would make the breakthrough.

“When you get close to those milestones and you know that you're maybe one, two, three away, you know that it's do-able in a game, so it's definitely something that was on my mind on Saturday.