November 6 We welcomed Buckie Thistle to Seafield Park, one of the teams expected to be challenging for the league title at the end of the season and so it proved today. They ran out comfortable winners 6-0, four up at half-time, with Andy MacAskill scoring a hat-trick. Jags manager Charlie Brown said, “Buckie dominated possession for long spells but to be honest they didn’t have to do much for their goals as most came from mistakes by our back four.”
Before the game our Chairman Donly McLeod presented Jimmy and Eunice Munro from Elgin with a cheque for £5300 for a £1 stake won on the club’s weekly lottery. Checkout the club website to play the lottery online. The draw is made every Sunday evening.
November 11 Speaking to the local newspaper, Strathspey & Badenoch Herald, Jags boss Charlie Brown is hoping that winning at Grant Street Park, Inverness in a cup competition for the second time this season will act as an incentive to the players. In what was the team’s best performance of the season the Jags were very worthy winners 4-0. This time we visit Clachnacuddin in the Highland League Cup sponsored by GPH Builders Merchants.
November 13 Off to Inverness for our third visit of the season on a damp November afternoon. In a tight contest with no quarter given it was Clach who came out on top when their captain Martin Callum netted on 75 minutes. Neither side created much during the first half but the Lilywhites had the better of the second 45 minutes. To add to The Jags woes, on 88 minutes Stephen Rennie was sent off for a second bookable offence. The club will now concentrate on improving their league position starting at Inverurie this coming Saturday.
November 20 A trip on the A 96 into Aberdeenshire and Harlaw Park, Inverurie, for our game with the Loco Works.
Another very early goal conceded put us on the back foot and a second on 18 minutes asked a lot but credit to the players who took the game to Inverurie and deserved to pull back a goal on 37 minutes through Kris Duncan but another poor piece of defending right on half-time saw us go in 3-1 down. The Jags took the game to Locos for the first 25minutes of the second half and had we scored it would have been ‘game on’ but it was not to be. Two more goals were conceded on 76 and 81 minutes for Inverurie to run out winners 5-1.
November 24 The club announced the signing, on loan, of 18-year-old striker Shane Harkness from Rothes FC until the end of the season. Shane goes straight into the squad for Saturday’s home game with Huntly. Jake Thomson who was with us on a season long loan from Elgin City has returned to Elgin as he has just had an operation on his ankle and will be out for 3 to 4 months.
November 26 Heavy snow started falling in Grantown which resulted in the game on the 27th with Huntly being called off. It was decided that as both clubs were free on Saturday December 4 the game would be played then at Seafield Park, weather permitting.
November 30 The Highland Football League decided that the game on Saturday December 4 with Huntly was to be postponed until later in the season. This was due to continuing poor weather forecast for the area for the rest of the week but allows Huntly to play their previously postponed game against Brora.
Assistant manager Jamie McGowan also appeared on the Highland Football Weekly Podcast during the month.