Turriff United manager Dean Donaldson admits his team got outclassed by powerful Highland League title chasers Buckie Thistle at Victoria Park
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Turriff United couldn't cope with having four key performers missing for Saturday's visit to one of the Highland League title favourites.
Buoyed by a superb 4-1 win over Inverurie Locos on day one of the season, Dean Donaldson's men travelled to Buckie Thistle on Saturday without new striker Neil Gauld, who netted twice in the victory over Locos.
Stopper Max Foster and midfielder Andy Watt were also absent along with Liam Strachan, and a young Turriff side slid to a 4-0 loss at Victoria Park.
"Buckie’s investment in their team has been very good and they’ve got a right good squad so it’s always a very difficult fixture," said manager Donaldson.
"They were at it and our midfield maybe got bullied a bit.
"We didn’t have four players who would generally play. Our midfield was young and a bit naive, they didn’t match the runners and the first two goals we conceded were schoolboy stuff."
Kyle MacLeod scored a 15th minute opener for Jags, with second half goals by Andy MacAskill, MacLeod again and Sam Pugh emphasising Buckie's superiority on the day.
Donaldson says he used video footgae to analyse his teams performances in matches and on the training ground and he will discuss what went wrong on Saturday with his squad this week.
"If you are off it a wee bit you’re not going to get much change out of Buckie. You need most of your team to be an 8 or a 9 on the day.
"We just got outclassed a wee bit.
"There’s a great squad of boys here and we maybe just got Locos at the right time, as they are not going through a very good period but they will come good.
"We’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves. The good thing about us is that in the Locos game we were hungry and we played the same team the week before to get ready for that.
"That game comes and goes and then we've got key players missing for the next game (at Buckie)."
Donaldson could have all four of his absentees back for Saturday's home league match against his former club Keith.
"I always keep an eye out for their results because I’ve got a lot of love for Keith, being my old team," he said. "I always want to see them do well apart from when we are playing them and I like their manager, Craig (Ewen) is a good lad.
"It’s up to our boys, if they want it then they can win the match and if they are off it, they will probably get what they deserve.
"We didn’t beat Keith last season, or Lossie and Wick. A lot of the teams round about us we didn’t beat last season. It’s the bigger teams that we did alright against, so we need to change that."
