Reporters view: Huntly v Cove Rangers 
Got ourselves back on track with our first win in 4 games.
Jerry O'Driscoll was ruled out with a bug and should hopefully be back for the top of the table clash at Grant Street Park vs Clachnacuddin in a weeks time. Cove seem to have gone downhill after their championship win in 2000/01. 11 games without a win, 3 points (all draws) from their 8 league encounters shows that our old rivals look a club in crisis as wins for Wick Academy and Rothes sent them to the bottom of the league.
GOALS
Huntly:
1) As Alan Stephen's long clearance was played forward their looked to be possibly three players offside, but all credit to Gary McGowan who kept his composure to side foot past Stephen Van Der Deyl.
2) flick on by David Henderson which alllowed Alan Redford to finish well for this first Huntly goal.
3) Great play from Richard Stainer down the right flank providing Gordon Farmer with a shot on goal. Van Der Deyl should've claimed the ball first time but Farmer got straight in for the rebound for only his third goal for the club.
4) The Cove defence were claiming offside as we attacked. Farmer the provider to cross for McGowan whose effort was turned in by Russell Guild who heads the top scorers chart with 12 goals
Cove Rangers:
1) David Henderson fouled Gary Clark outside the area. John Brown got a good hit on the dead ball as it went in at Barry Thompson's near post.
2) Brown again from a free kick after Alan Stephen's foul on Clark. Again, a great hit from the ex-Huntly winger whose effort went in off the crossbar.
OPPOSITION:
Jim Cheyne had a couple of chances early on which didn't cause too much problems for the Huntly backline. I thought Mark Smith looked sharp during the first half and seemed willing to get stuck in. Cove maybe lacked that bit of experience in their side with players like Arthur Murphy now retired and Craig Yeats out injured. The usually-deadly Michael Beattie was rarely a threat which is unsual for a striker of his calibre. During the latter stages of the game, a lot of the play for Cove came from Kevin Allan down the left flank who, like in his Huntly days is dangerous when breaking from the full back position.
OFFICIALS: Gary Cheyne had a good game - let the game flow, had a word with some players if he wasn't happy and only booked one player - Andy McCraw for a lunge on McGowan. There were some strange offsides decision from the assistant especially one against Gordon Farmer I think it was when two maybe three Cove defenders played him onside.
TEAM ANALYSIS:
Less slip-ups like we've seen in the past few weeks. Thought Barry was a bit unlucky with Brown's first dead ball when it beat him. Hendo lead the line well and kept Beattie out of the game. In the middle of the park, Mark Gray got stuck in and Farmer and McGowan played well out wide.
As I mentioned on Wednesday night, we're still missing a leader on the park as there wasn't too much shouting going on. We're now sitting on the same points as Clach but with them having a better goal difference. Let's build on this performance when we go to Inverness next week. Hopefully we can get a good travelling support heading North and urging the team back to the top of the league.
Grant 'Neep' Turner
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