Manager Post Buckie Thistle

12/07/22: Link to audio of James McPake`s post match comments

“It’s another clean sheet, to start with – that`s really important to what we’re trying to do.  

“Six players that came through the academy were on the pitch at one point during the night. Two academy kids made their debut in Michael Beagley and Jake Rennie. It’s a great reward for their hard work during pre season and the time we’ve been in.  

“That’s all positive, and then five goals, four different goalscorers. But, and there’s always a but, we should have been more clinical – the game should have been dead and buried in the first five minutes. That’s what we’ll strive to be, we want to be horrible when we get chances like that.

“But I can’t ask any more of them, they’ve worked hard to a man in there. They deserved it again tonight, on a fantastic pitch, in front of our own fans.

“We were a bit slow to start the game on Saturday, to say the least, we didn’t move the ball quick enough – I said that after the game. They turned that and it was more like us in the first 15 minutes. But when you get (and miss) chances like that, we’ll always be critical, that’s what makes us better. We’ll always keep asking those questions. I’d take that if that’s how it’s going to end up – and we keep creating the chances, even when we’re not scoring the goals. We keep knocking on the door, which was pleasing.”

Todorov scored two and came close to scoring a hattrick?

“It was a great save from the goalkeeper – that`s Nikolay Todorov and Lewis McCann going away after different games, disappointed that they didn’t get the match ball. That’s good. Kevin O’Hara’s work rate was great again.  

“Craig Wighton has got a bit of an issue with his knee but we were only going to risk him if needs be. We could see from quite early in the second half that we would just keep Craig for Saturday and the following week. That’s good when you can do that and bring a striker on who gets two goals. Lewis gets his goal as well.”

“But a lot of the stuff in the first half was down to Kevin’s work rate. I am pleased for all the strikers and the three academy kids coming on – it`s through merit, it is not just something we’ll do. We won’t just throw them on for the sake of it. They were great – great play from Andrew Tod to Jake Rennie for Josh Edwards’ goal. That capped the night off for me.”

Andrew Tod is already a favourite with the fans because of his dad’s playing career at Dunfermline. He looks a real prospect?

“I think we need to separate him from his dad, I don’t think it is fair for the boys because he has worked really hard. He got on on Saturday and that was his competitive debut at sixteen years old.

“That is down to the way that he has worked since the day we came in. Everybody had a fresh start and at sixteen he is fantastic in terms of his work rate, his ability to come in and do the right thing. To get after the ball and then take care of the ball in the wee moments of magic like that ball for big Toddy. That’s why he is on the pitch.

“I get the hype behind it and why he will be a favourite. His dad is an absolute favourite at this football club and I know how well thought of his dad was here but we have to distinguish the boy for his own ability.

We have to take that away, it is a great story and great for the football club but we see Andrew as a player himself and let’s make another career away from his dad’s which was a fantastic career at Dunfermline Athletic Football Club. He deserves it on his own and all the rewards should go to him for all the hard work over the six or seven weeks that I have been in the door.”

Buckie Thistle manager Graeme Stewart described the match as a “sobering experience” coming as it did after Saturday’s performance against Ross County.

“We just weren’t at it tonight. We got found out. I can make excuses such as the travelling and the changes to the team but in the end Dunfermline were streets ahead of us.

“They are two divisions above us but out there the gap looked a lot more. We were pretty poor in the first half and I made changes in the second half to try to inject some energy into the performance but it didn’t work.

“Some of the goals we lost towards the end were embarrassing – free headers and not matching runners but we just need to learn from it. I’ve told the players it wasn’t acceptable.

“We shouldn’t be getting beat 5-0 by anyone and we certainly shouldn’t be getting beat 5-0 by Dunfermline – no disrespect to them.”

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