Sunday 4 September
Huntly v Rothes

Billy Anderson: "Obviously I am delighted to be back on top of the league but this was always going to be an edgy game having played them in the cup, it was never going to be easy. Playing teams back to back is not ideal and especially with getting beat last week there was a lot of pressure on us to try and win today.

"I thought it was a terrible first half but the second half was a bit better. We scored two goals, albeit we got a bit of luck with the first one, but it was a stonewall penalty the second one.

"They were lucky to have eleven players on the park in my opinion. I have played football for a long time and anyone going in with two feet should be sent off and it was lucky the lads leg wasn't broken, which was a point I put across. On the other hand I am disappointed for young Matty Gairns who came on and looked like he was in the mood.

"He was buzzing about and to be sent off for a perfectly good challenge was a shame. He is not a dirty player at all but, we are top of the league and we would have taken a 1-0 at the start of the game after last week's horrendous performance.

"We lost Scotty Anderson in the warm up which didn?t help and Russell Guild failed a fitness test so we lost the skipper and our second in command was not ideal but what the defence had to do they did and now we have to look forward to a tough game next week against Fort William."

Gordon Winton
"I thought the boys played very well today again, especially in the first half where we contained and held Huntly. As much as they threatened us we threatened them but we always knew the first goal was going to be a crucial goal, we kind of mentioned that before the game and it was a bit disappointing off Graeme Bain's back that sent Dessie (Darren Strong) the wrong way.

"He said he had it covered all the way but obviously it just flicked Graeme and ended up in the back of the net and then Huntly to be fair, upped the tempo and put on the pressure. It was a bit of a soft penalty I thought, some weeks you get them some weeks you don't but we got the breaks last week, not this.

"Overall I am pleased with the performance of the lads, we were five players down on what would be our first team so it was good for them to still show the commitment and there are a lot of them who are trying to get in the team and they certainly opened my eyes today.

"Only Nathan played in the same position last week. Graeme Bain was at right back last week, he was sweeper today, Mark Adam at left back and Kippy (Chris Henderson) at right back then we had to go and change it quite quickly after Jamie Miller got injured.

"I am disappointed that we lost the game but I am heartened with the way the boys performed. We feel we are a fit team and the boys are working for each other as well which is a big big benefit for a team in the lower half of the league. If you are in there and you show the commitment and the work rate you won't be in there for long and I can guarantee that.

"If we show that every week we will start picking up points against teams who are not showing that commitment and we will start moving up. There were a few players we had to change around today and the commitment was still there, the effort was still there from every one of us and we have to keep that going.

"We have to take the positives out of the game and look towards next week. We have Keith next week at home so it is a big game as well. We can't afford to start losing a run of games as we have a run of big ones coming up, we have Keith, Deveronvale, Fraserburgh and obviously the Lossie Qualifying Cup game so there is a lot for us to play for."

Meanwhile he added the following comments on the fact that he and Paul became one of the rare father and son double acts to have taken the field at HFL level.

"The gap is 14 years I think! Well say 14 although I it is really nearly 24. Paul is 19 and, well you can say it is 23 years. It is the first time it has happened at this level but it happened before at Islavale.

"We came very close to it against Brora. Paul was on in that game and somebody was down injured but he got back up and got back going so I never came on. I actually came on to help out to be fair, we were struggling on the left side of the defence with Iain Macrae being sent off on Wednesday and Kevin Shortreed being injured as well.

"Mark went in there but Jamie got injured so with the run of injuries we have had there I went on but I have been training so I didn't feel that bad. The legs were getting tired in the second half.

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Sunday 19 February
Sunday Sayings February 18th: Part One

We have gone for a slightly different running order this week with the typed interviews pre-empting the audios. We start with the reaction to arguably the two big results of the weekend. ...more