Post Match Reaction: 'We Took Our Foot Off The Pedal'
A three-goal blitz in the opening 25 minutes was the perfect catalyst for Nairn County to record their first away win at Fraserburgh under the stewardship of manager Les Fridge.
The visitors got off to the best possible start when summer signings Chris Finnigan and Scott Graham put them two goals to the good inside five minutes before Martin MacDonald continued his fine scoring run with the third before the half-hour mark.
The Broch mounted a fight back in the second half and managed to claw two goals back but it was not
After the match, Fridge spoke exclusively to this site. He said: "It was a good three points for us. I thought we were terrific in the opening stages - we played some great football and our passing was excellent.
"We went in at half time three goals up and I told the boys not to get complacent after the break because we knew Fraserburgh would come at us. But that is exactly what we did and I thought we took our foot off the pedal a bit."
The manager was disappointed about the goals Nairn conceded. He said: "It was two bad goals to lose from our points of view. The first came from a silly free kick and the second was an uncharacteristic error by John Campbell. That made the closing stages interesting but I thought we were very strong in the final ten minutes because we hit the bar twice and were denied a stonewall penalty. Even (Fraserburgh manager) Charlie Duncan said it should have been a penalty to us."
The home side thought they had salvaged a share of the spoils when they
Fridge said: "I don't go along with the view that the goal should have stood. The linesman raised his flag and for me, there was no disputing it was the correct decision."
It was not only Nairn's first win at Bellslea under Fridge, but it was their first win away from home in the league against an Aberdeenshire FA club during the current manager's reign.
He said: "Not only can we take a lot out of this result, but we can take a lot out of our last three games. Before Saturday, we played at home against two clubs expected to be challenging for the title (Buckie and Cove) and only lost because of a last minute winner on both occasions. We also only lost because of a last minute penalty here (at Fraserburgh) last season so we're improving."
The manager chose to shuffle his pack for this match and threw in Glenn Main, Chris Finnigan and Scott Graham from the start.
He said: "Both Gregg Main and Shaun Kerr have missed a bit of training lately because of work so I decided to give Glenn a wee chance. Scott Graham and Chris Finnigan both came in as well and both scored which is pleasing.
"Over the past few months, we have had five or six boys missing every game so it's nice to be getting them back now and having some competition for places in the team."
Midfielder Duncan Jones limped off injured during Saturday's match and could be an injury doubt for next week's trip to Buckie.
Fridge said: "D.J. came off hurt in the second half. I don't know the extent of the injury at the moment but we will certainly monitor it this week."