AWAY MATCH v DEVERONVALE FC BREEDON HIGHLAND LEAGUE PRINCESS ROYAL PARK, BANFF, AB45 1AZ SATURDAY 3 JANUARY 2026 – KICK OFF 3pm
MATCH OFF – POSTPONED SNOW
Again we have succumbed to the winter weather as snow has covered many parts of the Highland League geographical area, and The Scottish Highland Football League has made the decision to cancel all matches arranged for Saturday 3rd January. The decision is in the interest of safety for players, officials and spectators. Keep checking our Facebook and social media for updates.
LAST SATURDAY v BUCKIE THISTLE
Seafield Park 27.12.25
Unfortunately as we hinted at Seafield Park was frost bound and unplayable so our match against Buckie Thistle will be re-arranged and when we have the details of the date it will be on our social media sites and of course on the website.
SCHEDULED JANUARY FIXTURES
FESTIVE RAFFLE
Our Festive Raffle is now in full swing and tickets are still available from our committee members, players, management team, and various businesses throughout Grantown.
Prefer to buy online? No problem, drop us a DM and we’ll send you a secure payment link. £1 per ticket or £5 per book
A huge thank you to our sponsors The McBroads – Not Just Travel for donating our fantastic 1st Prize Two tickets to Aberdeen v Hibernian on Saturday 11th April at Pittodrie Stadium plus an overnight stay at the Leonardo Hotel, Aberdeen! And that’s not all we have lots of other great prizes to be won too! Thank you for your incredible support every ticket sold helps the club!
There is still just over a week to buy your tickets – the draw is scheduled to take place after our match v Clachnacuddin FC a week on Saturday (10 Jan) in the Mackellar Suite – again, if the weather intrudes all information regarding the draw will be on our Facebook and other social media sites.
LOTTERY HITS £14,400 JACKPOT
Could someone please win our fundraising Lottery – here’s your chance to play online before Sunday night’s draw ….just click here
Wouldn’t it be a great way to start the New Year……
LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes. There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly.
The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. If you are not playing online and have physically purchased a paper ticket the 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
All winners will be notified
2026
Strathspey Thistle Football Club thank you very much for your support throughout 2025 and we hope that by April we will have amassed more points than we ever have done before in the Breedon Highland League, which is an achievment everyone at the Club would be well chuffed about….and then, hopefully, all intact we set sail for season 2026-2027 with perhaps more involvement in the various cups, and perhaps a wee run in the Scottish Cup…..but that’s all after we follow Scotland’s efforts in the World Cup in June and July and possibly the closest and most exciting Scottish Premiership finish in forty years!! Lots to look forward to.
HOME MATCH v BUCKIE THISTLE FC BREEDON HIGHLAND LEAGUE SEAFIELD PARK, GRANTOWN-ON-SPEY, PH26 3HE SATURDAY 27 DECEMBER 2025 – KO 2PM
I hope Santa was good to you, and you had an enjoyable Christmas.
This week we welcome players, officials and supporters of Buckie Thistle FC to Seafield Park for our second meeting of the season in the Breedon Highland League and our last game in 2025. Buckie are currently sitting in sixth place in the league on thirty-three points and are five places above us and have seven points more, so that could mean yet another Christmas cracker to enjoy this week! I would expect Buckie to be on a mission of revenge after us beating them earlier in the season, but they have had mixed fortunes over the past few weeks and, although they had a good win at Keith last Saturday, it points to another exceptionally difficult game for us, but one we are more capable of getting a result so we don’t have as much fear as we probably would have done in seasons past. The massive high after our match against league leaders Brechin on the 13 December was brought very much down to earth last Saturday, when the flu bug ravaged the squad and we only had three fit players available for selection for our trip to Banks O’Dee, so fingers crossed that the boys are back fighting fit this Saturday. In the Buckie ranks are two local lads – defender Sam Morrison, who joined us on loan from Buckie when recovering from injury for the latter part of last season, and Josh Peters, who is scoring freely again this season so we’ll have to try and keep him quiet – especially after his four goals last Saturday!!!
If any of the Buckie travelling support wants a resumé of what’s available in Grantown – click here – and remember, our Mackellar Suite situated within the ground is available for pre and aprés match alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and foodstuffs.
I hope the footballing gods are with us as it was -8 degrees on Christmas Night and it has hardly been above freezing since Tuesday so fingers crossed the game can go ahead on Saturday – please check with our Facebook and other social media for up to date news.
LAST SATURDAY v BANKS O’DEE
As mentioned above, head coach Ryan Esson was devasted that we could not continue the momentum gained from our victory against Brechin City the previous week as the squad was ravaged with the flu bug that is sweeping the country and so after long consultations with the Highland League they agreed to postpone the match.
FESTIVE RAFFLE
We still have a couple of weeks left before the draw which will take place after our home match against Clach on the 10 January so if you haven’t bought a ticket yet ….please do….
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
As ever at this time of year we can never guarantee that matches will go ahead on the Saturday and already we have lost three Saturday fixtures (1x home 2x away) and we wait to discover how the HL try to fit these fixtures in – we hope that we do not end up as we did last season with six games to play over two weeks in March but hopefully the weather and team availability for fixtures will all fall into place – and as soon as we know the dates we will publish on our social media. The League schedules a couple of Saturdays for “pick-up” days i.e. for re-arranged games – but that depends on the availability of both teams- no cup ties etc.
Scheduled matches until the end of February are as follows:
Jan 3 v Deveronvale (A) Jan 10 v Clach (H) Jan 17 v Formartine Utd (A) Jan 31 No Scheduled Game Feb 7 Brora Rangers (A) Feb 14 No Scheduled Game Feb 21 v Forres Mechanics (A) Feb 28 v Fraserburgh (H) OUR FIRST EVER LADIES DAY
Hopefully we’ll see you at Seafield Park for one of the above…..if you want to book hospitality please do… hospitality@strathspeythistlefc.uk
LOTTERY HITS £14,300 JACKPOT
What a great way to start the New Year……Could someone please win our fundraising Lottery – here’s your chance to play online before Sunday night’s draw ….just click here LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes. There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly.
The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. If you are not playing online and have physically purchased a paper ticket the 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
All winners will be notified.
2025
Everyone connected with the Club, I would hope, has enjoyed this years escapades, probably a lot more than previous years and it has been great to compete against all the teams, and beat quite a few. I look forward to seeing where we are in April….we’re on track for having our best season in the Highland League….ever! On behalf of everyone connected with Strathspey Thistle Football Club we would like to wish everyone, especially our supporters, a Happy and Healthy 2026 and our thoughts are also with those who have had a tough 2025 and wish that next year will be a happier one.
AWAY MATCH v BANKS O’DEE FC BREEDON HIGHLAND LEAGUE SPAIN PARK, ABERDEEN AB12 3AB SATURDAY 20 DECEMBER 2025 – KICK OFF 3pm
GAME OFF
Unfortunately this week’s scheduled match against Banks O’Dee has had to be postponed because flu has rampaged through our playing squad – as soon as we know the date when the fixture will be rearranged we will post on all our social media platforms.
SATURDAY’S HOME MATCH v BRECHIN CITY On a cold, dark and blustery day history was made with the league leaders visiting Seafield Park probably expecting to leave with all three points, but left with nothing – as the Jags, thanks to a Shaun Morrison goal, took all three.
Action in the Brechin goal mouth
As I have said many a time on this website – “It’s a funny old game“ which, the older readers will remember, was the late great Jimmy Greaves’ regular missive to his co-host Ian St. John in their 1980/90’s Saturday lunchtime football TV show “Saint and Greavsie” and that was proved yet again on Saturday. I had texted on Sunday morning a couple of my friends who keep in regular contact about the the Jags’ results and said that Jags’ head coach Ryan Esson was quoted before the game in the local paper as saying that he and the team fear nobody – they had played all the teams in the league apart from Inverurie and had, apart from a couple of games, had more or less matched our opponents …. And… that was the impression I got on Saturday – although Brechin fans in substantial number were very vocal in their frustration and probably did not thoroughly agree. Something else I had texted to my friends was probably the managers summations of the game would be that Ryan would say that we played well and their manager will say that Brechin did not! Sure enough in Monday’s P&J that is exactly what they said….Ryan saying that we stuck to a our game plan, scored a good striker’s goal after an excellent move and defended very well throughout, possibly the best he’s seen all season and Ray MacKinnon, Brechin’s boss, said Brechin did not play well at all…..are they both right?? I must admit at no point on Saturday were the Jags’ fans really worried and Jag’s keeper Danny Gillan added another clean sheet to his CV and although playing really well had no “big” saves throughout the match and I thought we deserved our win.
It was equally matched until the thirty-fourth minute when, after a very good piece of interplay, Shaun Morrison deftly nicked the ball past the Brechin keeper for us to go one up, and this was the score at half-time. Twelve minutes into the second half Brechin brought on Republic of Ireland international Cillian Sheridan, which among Jag’s fans was the only time there was a slight concern, as he has an excellent CV throughout Europe as well as being an ex-Celtic player and in the past has scored a few times against us – but the boys at the back handled the situation very well and although Brechin piled on the pressure in the later stages we coped well. The only downside for us was a couple of injuries – a shoulder one for Conor MacPhee, and for Filip Frankzak, who has broken a bone in his foot which will keep him out for at least eight weeks – both players will be a substantial loss over the coming weeks.
Saturday’s team was: Danny Gillan, Zach MacPhee, Filip Frankzak, Jamie Calder, James McShane (C), Jamie Williamson, Conor MacPhee, Liam Shewan, Shaun Morrison, Josh Race, George Robesten Subs : Ethan Rae (Gk), Ali Nixon, Ali Morrison, Bodhan Campbell, Cammy Lisle and James Fraser.
So …..arguably our best result since joining the Highland League in 2009 ….that was certainly the opinion of the vast majority of the Jags’ fans as they left Seafield Park……and in the opinion of one “ if you can beat the league leaders you can beat all the others!”
Winner of the half-time raffle at the Brechin game was Tim Rogers. Tim, who has followed the Jag’s for a few years now, and has been a season ticket holder throughout that time too, was well chuffed with his prize and we hope the win will enable him to celebrate Saturday’s Jags’ even more with one or two nippie sweeties!
PRESENTATION
As it was Brechin City’s last visit to Seafield Park on Highland League business Strathspey Thistle chairman Donly Mcleod (left) presented Brechin’s Honorary President David Birse with a bottle of malt whisky and two engraved crystal tumblers in a token of friendship – both men wished each other all the best for their club’s futures and hoped to maybe meet again in perhaps a pre-season friendly sometime or a Scottish Cup tie. Brechin will be participating in the Scottish Midlands East league next season if they do not qualify for League Two.
THANK YOU, LYLA!
L to R – Lyla, Caci Horton, Jags’ captain James McShane, ref Scott Donahoe and Brechin captain Euan Spark.
A big thank you to our mascot Lyla, who joined us at Seafield Park today. Lyla and her dad Liam are on a brilliant journey visiting football grounds and we were delighted to be number 8 on their adventure. We can quite confidently say Lyla was our lucky charm today!
Maybe this was our secret weapon – Lyla’s pep talk with Ryan Esson….
Make sure to check out and follow Dad and daughter footie adventure where they share their groundhopping experiences together. Thanks again to Lyla and Liam, you’ll be very welcome back anytime and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Thanks to Liam for the photos.
FESTIVE RAFFLE
Committee stalwart Mags Clark (right) and her friend Susan McQuade spent Wednesday in our local Premier and Thursday in our local Co-op shops selling Festive Raffle tickets as well as Club merchandise – which will be making excellent stocking fillers for some lucky Jags’ fans.
The Club would like to thank Susan most profusely for all her help this year at the Golf Day, match days and this week’s endeavours – and hopefully we will see her again at Seafield Park sometimes again next year!
LAST MATCH OF 2025
Our final fixture of 2025 takes place on Saturday 27th December when we welcome Buckie Thistle Football Club to Seafield Park.
Spaces are still available — get your friends together between Christmas and New Year and enjoy a great day out in hospitality.
Could someone please win our fundraising Lottery – here’s your chance to play online before Sunday night’s draw ….just click here
LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes. There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly. The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. If you are not playing online and have physically purchased a paper ticket the 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
All winners will be notified.
Again,at this time we appreciate that there seems to be a lot of fund raising going on and it’s true – but this is the time of year when it is our main chance to raise funds which over the year goes on ground improvements and outgoings, floodlights, refereeing fees and not to mention keeping and improving our playing squad – it’s nae cheap and we really appreciate all the support we get from from everyone who has an interest in keeping the Jags going and hope that everyone is enjoying what has been happening on the park this season.
THANK YOU and we hope to see you next week at Seafield Park for the visit of Buckie Thistle.
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS On behalf of everyone connected with Strathspey Thistle Football Club we would like to wish everyone, especially our supporters, a Happy Christmas and our thoughts are also with those who will be experiencing a very different one.
HOME MATCH v BRECHIN CITY FC BREEDON HIGHLAND LEAGUE SEAFIELD PARK, GRANTOWN-ON-SPEY, PH26 3HE SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER 2025 – KO 2PM
Well, it’s a historic day on Saturday when we welcome Brechin City FC the current leaders of the Breedon Highland League for the last time to Seafield Park on league business. We welcome players, officials and supporters of Brechin who are making their last journey to Grantown – and travelling being principally one of the significant reasons for them making the decision that they would be joining the Lowland East League next season. In July, Brechin confirmed that they would be leaving the Highland League and they hope to be leaving as champions, which would offer them the chance through play-offs of returning to League Two of Scottish Football. Although we were, if memory serves me right, the first team in the Highland League to score against them at Glebe Park, but in as much a way as Davie Narey’s “toe poke” annoyed the Brazilians, we have suffered some bad results since they joined the league in 2021/2022. But, in August this year our performance was so much better. We lost, and the record books will say it was a 3-0 win for Brechin. However, Jags’ head coach Ryan Esson said after the game that he was very pleased with the performance. A sloppy goal, a dubious penalty and a Cillian Sheridan goal just before half-time did not tell the whole story of the match as we very much matched Brechin, especially in the second half. An Aaron Doran free kick hitting the bar and a Shaun Morrison effort blocked by the Brechin keeper could have greatly changed the outcome making the last quarter a far different game. So, hopefully, we go into Saturday’s game in a far better shape, than perhaps the last time we played them at Seafield Park last season, and, again, hopefully we will get something out of what could be our last match against Brechin for a very long time.
Goalmouth action from probably Brechin’s second visit to Seafield Park in September 2022
With us having survived, only just, three weeks of non-football action the only positive is that Ryan Esson will have more or less a full squad to choose from…as ever we wish the boys all the best and come four o’clock or thereabouts hopefully the Jags’ supporters and players will have something to smile about.
We would like to thank the supporters of Brechin who have travelled to Grantown over the past few years – it is much appreciated – and a reminder that our Mackellar Suite will be open to welcome them with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages as well as various foodstuffs.
OUR FESTIVE RAFFLE 2025/26
Our Festive Raffle is now in full swing and tickets are available from our committee members, players, management team, and various businesses throughout Grantown as well as our intrepid committee lady, Mags Clark, who will be selling tickets at the Premier Store in Grantown on 17 December and at the Co-op also in Grantown on 18 December….. We’ll also be selling them at both home games in December. Prefer to buy online? No problem, drop us a DM and we’ll send you a secure payment link. £1 per ticket or £5 per book A huge thank you to our sponsors The McBroads – Not Just Travel for donating our fantastic 1st Prize Two tickets to Aberdeen v Hibernian on Saturday 11th April at Pittodrie Stadium, plus an overnight stay at the Leonardo Hotel, Aberdeen! And that’s not all we have lots of other great prizes to be won too! Raffle Draw: Saturday 10th January after our Highland League home fixture with Clachnacuddin FC. Thank you for your incredible support every ticket sold helps the club!
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY AND HOSPITALITY Our next scheduled home games, all kicking off at 2pm, over the next couple of months or so are as follows – but remember please check with our social media pages for up-to-date information as we are now at the mercy of Mother Nature for ground conditions, etc.
Saturday 27 December v Buckie Thistle FC 2026 Saturday 10 January v Clachnacuddin FC Saturday 28 February v Fraserburgh FC
Could someone please win our fundraising Lottery – here’s your chance to play online before Sunday night’s draw ….just click here
LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes. There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly. The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. If you are not playing online and have physically purchased a paper ticket the 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
All winners will be notified.
We appreciate that there seems to be a lot of fund raising going on and it’s true – but this time of year is our main chance to raise funds which over the year goes on ground improvements and outgoings, floodlights, refereeing fees and not to mention keeping and improving our playing squad – it’s nae cheap and we really appreciate all the support we get from from everyone who has an interest in keeping the Jags going and hope that everyone is enjoying what has been happening on the park this season.
This Saturday is the third in a row that we haven’t had a game, the last two were down to the weather and this one is because the quarter-finals of the Highland League Cup are being played. As I have said before there is no easy game in the Highland League but before the end of January we are in for a tough few weeks as we are scheduled to play six of the top ten teams, which in past seasons we would probably have had more of a feeling of dread, but as we have competed well against most of these teams already this season it will be very interesting to see how we fare going into the second half of the season.
FUND RAISING QUIZ NIGHT – FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER. Last Friday night, Strathspey Thistle held a Quiz Night fundraiser within the clubrooms of the Royal British Legion Scotland Strathspey in Grantown-on-Spey. A large crowd attended with 11 teams of 6 taken part.
Quiz Master for the night was committee member Tom Clarke who had Questions on General Knowledge, Movies, Music, Scottish Football and also a round on local knowledge which caught out many teams!
Once all the answer sheets were all checked the results were….. In third place, Still Working on it with 85 points….. in second place, Ground Control to Major Tom with 88 points and the winners were Scrambled Eggheads with 91 ½ points out of a possible 115. Thanks to Rob Clark for the report and photos.
Strathspey Thistle Football Club would like to thank everyone who participated and those who helped in making it such an enjoyable evening and already the teams are counting down the days to next year’s quiz.
OUR FESTIVE RAFFLE 2025/26
Our Festive Raffle is now in full swing and tickets are available from our committee members, players, management team, and various businesses throughout Grantown as well as our intrepid committee lady Mags Clark who will be selling tickets at the Premier Store in Grantown on 17 December and at the Co-op also in Grantown on 18 December….. We’ll also be selling them at all home games in December. Prefer to buy online? No problem, drop us a DM and we’ll send you a secure payment link. £1 per ticket or £5 per book
A huge thank you to our sponsors The McBroads – Not Just Travel for donating our fantastic 1st Prize Two tickets to Aberdeen v Hibernian on Saturday 11th April at Pittodrie Stadium, plus an overnight stay at the Leonardo Hotel, Aberdeen! And that’s not all we have lots of other great prizes to be won too! Raffle Draw will take place on Saturday 10th January after our Highland League home fixture with Clachnacuddin FC. Thank you for your incredible support every ticket sold helps the club!
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Our next scheduled home games, all kicking off at 2pm, over the next couple of months or so are as follows – but remember please check with our social media pages for up-to-date information as we are now at the mercy of Mother Nature for ground conditions. Saturday 13 December v Brechin City FC Saturday 27 December v Buckie Thistle FC 2026 Saturday 10 January v Clachnacuddin FC Saturday 28 February v Fraserburgh FC
Could someone please win our fundraising Lottery – here’s your chance to play online before Sunday night’s draw ….just click here LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes. There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly. The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. If you are not playing online and have physically purchased a paper ticket the 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
All winners will be notified.
We appreciate that there seems to be a lot of fund raising going on and it’s true – but this is time of year that is our main chance to raise funds which over the year goes on ground improvements and outgoings, floodlights, refereeing fees and not to mention keeping and improving our playing squad – it’s nae cheap and we really appreciate all the support we get from everyone who has an interest in keeping the Jags going and hope that everyone is enjoying what has been happening on the park this season. THANK YOU and we hope to see you next week at Seafield Park ( 13 December ) for the last visit of Brechin City as a Highland League club, as next season they are moving to the Lowland League.
Saturday 1st: A solid start to the month as a Liam Shewan penalty earned a point away from home at Turriff United, traditionally a difficult place for the Jags to visit.
Manager Ryan Esson told the Press & Journal: “We tried to use the wings and get balls into the box and we got our reward with another point away from home which is never a bad thing.”
Saturday 8th: No game for the Jags as the Highland League Cup took precedence but there was no Saturday off for some of the players as they were put through their fitness paces.
Quoted in our local newspaper, the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald, Ryan Esson said: “It was 9:15 in the morning. They worked all week and then I was asking them to come and be blasted with running, so their attitude was good and I’m looking forward to Saturday now.”
Sunday 9th: Committee member Charlie Sinclair laid a wreath on behalf of the club at the Grantown War Memorial to mark Remembrance Day.
Saturday 15th: Prior to the home game with Lossiemouth, at Seafield Park, the signing of young striker Bodhan Campbell, on loan from Buckie Thistle, was announced.
Saturday 15th: Trailing by a goal to nil at half-time, the Jags equalised just after the break thanks to a James McShane header and went in front through Caelan Mutch around the hour mark.
Calum Brown looked to have sealed the points with a third goal in stoppage time and, although another Lossiemouth strike made for a nervous finish, we held on for another important victory.
Tuesday 18th: A fairly quiet day on the football front…except for Scotland’s Men qualifying for the World Cup for the first time since 1998 after a dramatic evening at Hampden Park and three incredible goals that saw off Denmark. A great achievement from Steve Clarke and his players and a huge boost for the game at all levels. All eyes are now on the draw in early December for anyone planning to travel to North America next summer.
Saturday 22nd: The first real cold spell of the winter put paid to the scheduled game at Keith.
Friday 28th: The club held a fundraising quiz night at the Royal British Legion in Grantown, thanks to everyone who attended, to the Legion for hosting and to committee member Tom Clarke for organising.
Saturday 29th: November was scheduled to end with the visit of Rothes to Seafield Park but, with the pitch frozen in parts, unfortunately the game fell foul of the weather.
That means we head into December in 10th place in the Highland League with 22 points from 17 matches.
In the Scottish Cup, all five Highland League clubs gave good accounts of themselves in defeat against higher level opposition, including Banks O’ Dee who lost only 2-0 at home to a Ross County side who were in the Premiership only last season.
STOP PRESS: LOTTERY JACKPOT NOW £14,000 – PLAY HERE
Nature has again beaten us so today’s match v Rothes has been postponed due to frost.
Our next scheduled game is a home match against Brechin City on the 13 December KO 2pm – keep checking our social media pages for any more information.
HOME MATCH v ROTHES FC BREEDON HIGHLAND LEAGUE SEAFIELD PARK, GRANTOWN-ON-SPEY, PH26 3HE SATURDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2025 – KO 2PM
This Saturday we welcome players, officials and supporters of Rothes FC. Rothes is one of the closest teams geographically to the Jags so there has always been a fair bit of rivalry between the two teams. Unfortunately, this has not been Rothes’ best season and currently sit bottom of the league on two points – however, when we played them at Mackessock Park back in July, we were fortunate to leave with all three points after a seven goal thriller – James McShane sealing the victory in the eighty-fifth minute with one of his bullet headers making the score 4-3 to the Jags – so we will expect the Speysiders to want revenge for that result. As the Jags’ head coach Ryan Esson said in this weeks local newspaper, “The Strathy”, that over the season Rothes have been very unlucky in quite a few games that perhaps they should have got more from, and that they will be a very difficult opponent, especially up front with youngster Ruairi Duncan and ex-Jags Ross Logan and Jake Thompson. Jags’ fans will probably recognise a few more ex-Jags who are with Rothes now, which makes it seem to have more of a “local derby” vibe about it and we hope that it’s the Jags that add to their points tally on Saturday afternoon.
The Jags scoring during their match with Rothes in September 2019…..
Ryan hopes to have a couple boys back from injury including Ross County loanee George Robestan but Dan Whitehorn, Aaron Doran and Matty Wright are still a few weeks away.
If any of the visiting fans want to get a quick resumé of what’s available in Grantown please click here – AND ALL FANS REMEMBER IT IS A 2PM KICK-OFF.
LAST WEEK’S GAME v KEITH As you will no doubt know the weather conditions got the best of us and we were one of four Highland League matches postponed last week…incidentally so was the Rothes game so everyone will be buzzin’ to get back to the fitba’.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Our next scheduled home games, all kicking off at 2pm, over the next couple of months or so are as follows – but remember please check with our social media pages for up-to-date information as we are now at the mercy of Mother Nature for ground conditions.
There is also the possibility of a game on 5 December – full details will be available here and on our social media pages as soon as possible if there is to be.
Saturday 13 December v Brechin City FC Saturday 27 December v Buckie Thistle FC
2026
Saturday 10 January v Clachnacuddin FC Saturday 28 February v Fraserburgh FC
If all went well, and no doubt it did, on Friday night – 28 Nov – we will have completed our second annual quiz night successfully and our thanks go to everyone who helped and took part, we’ll try and get a wee report compiled for next week and by then we should also have all the details of our Xmas Raffle……
LOTTERY NOW £13,900 – SOMEONE MUST WIN IT……….
IT’S NOW AN ONGOING RECORD AMOUNT WAITING TO BE WON ON THE JAGS’ FUNDRAISING LOTTERY!!!
£13,900 for you to win by playing our online fundraising lottery today- click here if you want to play this Sunday evening…or why not subscribe online to play for five weeks, ten weeks etc – all information available on the clubforce web page….
LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES
After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes. There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly. The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. The 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
All winners will be notified
SCOTTISH CUP WISHES We wish all five Highland League teams that are still left in the Scottish Cup all the very best in a very intriguing set of matches over the weekend – all against teams outwith the Highland League. Bon chance….
As expected really, tomorrow’s match against Keith has been postponed – Kynoch Park is snow and ice bound – we now turn our attention to next week’s home game against Rothes FC.
AWAY MATCH v KEITH FC BREEDON HIGHLAND LEAGUE KYNOCH PARK, KEITH AB55 5EB SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2025 – KICK OFF 3pm
This Saturday, weather permitting, we’re off down the A95 to Kynoch Park, Keith for our Breedon Highland League match against Keith FC.
This begins our second round of fixtures and being on twenty-two points for the season it is, so far, our best season since we joined the league in 2009. Keith visited us for our first match of the season way back in July and we started the league well with a 3-1 win so, I would imagine the Maroons will want to avenge that result. Keith, on seventeen points, sit in twelfth place in the league one place below ourselves and have been putting together one or two decent results over the past few weeks, and drew with Brechin City on Wednesday night at Glebe Park, the home side levelling with a stoppage time penalty – so Saturday’s game has the makings of a cracker…..providing Kynoch Park escapes what looks like a bleak weather forecast – please check out our social media if you are planning going.
SATURDAY’S GAME v LOSSIEMOUTH AT SEAFIELD PARK.
As football clichés go this was a game of two halves as Lossiemouth had the better of the first half and scored just before half-time going in 1-0 up.
However, a different Jags team started the second half, and we were level after three minutes when captain James McShane out jumped the Lossie defence and from six yards headed home from a corner. Goal number two followed fifteen minutes later when Caelan Mutch fired home a screamer from just outside the penalty box. The match was over in the ninety-second minute when Calum Brown dispossessed the Lossie keeper thirty yards out, and ran in to score the Jags’ third.
Ex-Jag Owen Lovelace pulled one back for the visitors two minutes later making the final score 3-2 for the Jags. Again it was a hard fought match, and as everyone now says there are very few easy matches in the Highland League. As stated earlier the win took our points tally to twenty-two, so hopefully we are on track for our best season yet.
If you want to see the goals click hereon our Facebook page.
HALF-TIME RAFFLE WINNER
This week’s winner of the Half-Time Raffle was Andy MacEwan, whose dad is Nethy Bridge’s own Rev Jim MacEwan. Andy was at the match with his daughter Lottie.
MAN OF THE MATCH
In the match against Lossiemouth Jamie Calder was named Man of the Match, as chosen by Barry Wilson, one of our hospitality guests. A composed and committed performance at the back from Jamie, contributing significantly to the result at Seafield Park.
WELCOME BODHAN We’re delighted to announce that 18-year-old forward Bodhan Campbell has joined Strathspey Thistle on loan from Buckie Thistle Football Club until January, subject to SFA approval.
Bodhan, enjoyed a standout season with Balloan Thistle in the Highland League North last year, catching attention with his goals. Welcome to the Jags, Strathy that is…Bodhan!
SCOTLAND’S MENS FOOTBALL TEAM
Although we had a wee setback on Saturday night with a loss against Greece – the last twenty minutes of the game must have given us a bit of confidence coming back from three goals down and scoring two and especially with result in Denmark. So it was a showdown at Hampden on Tuesday night – winner takes all.
Lawrence Shankland
WHAT A GAME……three brilliant goals – you would be lucky seeing one at a match during a season, maybe a lifetime, but not three in the one match…add to that Denmark equalising twice – they only needed to draw – and the jubilation after the final whistle meaning after twenty-eight years we were going to a World Cup. Everybody at Strathspey Thistle would like to send their congratulations to the players and managerial team…..and as a post script according to our Club historian Rob Clark, Lawrence Shankland’s great uncle was Sir Thomas Shankland, provost of the town in the 1960’s, and Shankland Court in Grantown was named after him. – you never know if Lawrence has a great World Cup there maybe another set of houses named after him!!!
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Our next scheduled home games, all kicking off at 2pm, over the next couple of months or so are as follows – but remember please check with our social media pages for up-to-date information as we are now at the mercy of Mother Nature for ground conditions.
Saturday 29 November v Rothes FC Saturday 13 December v Brechin City FC Saturday 27 December v Buckie Thistle FC 2026 Saturday 10 January v Clachnacuddin FC Saturday 28 February v Fraserburgh FC
IT’S A RECORD AMOUNT WAITING TO BE WON ON THE JAGS’ FUNDRAISING LOTTERY!!!
£13,800 for you to win by playing our online fundraising lottery today- click here if you want to play this Sunday evening…or why not subscribe online to play for five weeks, ten weeks etc – all information available when you click on the clubforce web page….
LOTTERY CH-CH-CHANGES After the current jackpot has been won therefore completing that game, there will be some changes. There will still be a weekly prize of £100 for a consolation winner if their entry matches four of the five numbers drawn, however instead of a weekly increase in the jackpot of £100, this will now be increased monthly. The game is to forecast 5 winning numbers, which are drawn at random, from 1-20. The 5 numbers chosen are to be marked by a cross (X).
The Jackpot prize starts at £1,000 and the game continues until it is won and starts afresh. As applicable, the Jackpot increases by £100 immediately after the first draw in each calendar month, up to a maximum of £5,000. The Jackpot is then capped at £5,000 until it is won in a weekly draw.
If more than one player has 5 winning numbers, the Jackpot will be divided equally among the winning players.
Should no entry forecast all 5 winning numbers, then any player matching 4 numbers will be entered into a draw for a single Consolation Prize of £100.
THE DRAW will take place every SUNDAY at 7pm unless otherwise advised.
The entrant named on the ticket must be at least 16 years of age.
All winners will be notified.
REMEMBER TO CHECK TO SEE IF THE KEITH GAME IS ON – AND HOPEFULLY WEATHER PERMITTING – WE’LL SEE YOU AT SEAFIELD PARK NEXT SATURDAY 29TH FOR OUR MATCH AGAINST ROTHES FC.
