Turriff find their feet to progress
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THERE was no panic when league leaders Turriff Utd trailed at half-time in Saturday’s League Cup game at Huntly, revealed manager Ross Jack.
"There were no raised voices and no panic. We had a few chances to score and they had one half chance which they took," he said.
"We knew with a bit of reorganisation, we had more energy in the middle of the park and we played further forward in the second half."
After trailing to Craig Dorrat’s 18th minute goal, Turriff got back on level terms when Gary Harris went down in the box after a coming together with goalkeeper Fraser Hobday and a defender.
Jack admitted he would have been disappointed if a similar penalty had been awarded against his side. Artjoms Kuznecovs converted the spot kick and Turriff killed the tie with two goals in the space of two minutes when Paul Young and Andy MacAskill struck around the hour mark.
Kuznecovs wrapped up a comfortable win with a fourth goal nine minutes from the end.
The only sour note was a red card in the dying seconds for striker Nick Gray, who reacted to an off-the-ball challenge from Gary Davidson by pushing the Huntly defender in the chest.
"I am not condoning what Nick did, but he was provoked as the boy kicked him on the achilles," said Jack.
With a League Cup quarter-final at home to Forres Mechanics to look forward to at the end of the month, Turriff will resume their Highland League campaign at Keith on Saturday.
Jack is deploying a "one game at a time" philosophy as his side look to keep the pressure on Brora Rangers and the likes of Cove, Wick, Formartine and Inverurie, who all still harbour title ambitions.
"We don’t fear anybody. We are in a position nobody expected us to be in but will remain as level headed as we can," he said.
And Jack believes there is more to come from his squad, who are three points ahead of Brora, who have two games in hand.
"We are a team that can still get better and improve. We are enjoying things at the moment," he said.
"Brora have been through this before and have an experienced manager in Davie Kirkwood."
