Vikings in seventh heaven as they hit the goal trail against Bunillidh
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While their Dammies home was not up to scratch, Thurso were pitch-perfect in their 7-2 "home" win against Bunillidh Thistle.
Goals from Conor Trueman (2), Lewis McKechnie (2), Michael Petrie, James McLean and Innes MacIntosh, with Thistle replying via Gary Millard and Duncan Davidson, saw the Vikings make it four league wins out of four.
Thurso sit on top of the North Caledonian table with 12 points, three ahead of Invergordon and St Duthus.
This fixture was meant to be played at the Dammies but a request to switch venue to Helmsdale's Couper Park had to be granted by the North Caledonian FA due to the poor state of Thurso's pitch.
Assistant boss Michael Gray revealed that a grass-cutting job gone wrong had led to the chaos regarding the Dammies surface which currently has Saturday's home fixture against Orkney in the balance.
He said: "What has happened is that we used the services of a private contractor to carry out maintenance on the Dammies pitch.
"However, they made a mess of cutting the grass and the end result has seen the pitch marked with track marks up and down a section of it.
"The pitch was not suitable to stage last weekend's game and thankfully Bunillidh were willing to switch venue. We're very disappointed with the contractor.
"We're giving the pitch every opportunity to be ready for Saturday's visit of Orkney, but if it's not in suitable condition we may have to look at exploring other avenues in order to get the game played.
"But it's too early to say we're going down that route as we are committed to hosting Orkney at the Dammies."
Of the thumping victory against Bunillidh, Gray had nothing but superlatives for the Thurso players.
"At the start of the season, the manager [Stevie Reid] set out clear targets for the team," he said. "They've bought in to that and, coupled with the new younger guys injecting a freshness into training, things are going well for us.
"We're under no illusions, though, that tougher games lie in wait for us and that there's a long way to go.
"However, compared to this time last season, being top of the league is a much better place to be than near the bottom.
"The whole team played exceptionally well although special mentions go to Aaron Wilson – a very clever midfielder who used the ball well – and Lewis McKechnie at left-back who we encouraged to go forward in the second half and he got two goals."
