Dean Brotherston bagged a hat-trick as Threave Rovers cruised to victory over Eglinton on Saturday.
The Castle Douglas side returned home with a 6-1 win – with Brotherston scoring half the goals.
Boss Vinnie Parker said: He’s so adaptable, you can play him in so many positions. He’s played left back, centre half, up front, right wing, left wing.
“He was back up front on Saturday and he was absolutely outstanding. He looks like he’s enjoying his football just now and some of his finishing was exceptional.
“We spoke before the game about keeping it tight for the first 10 or 15 minutes as we’ve been guilty away from home of losing control early.
“We were being mindful of trying to be hard to beat until we settled down and got a bit of control and we did that.
“We started to open them up a bit and some of the goals we scored were really good. We could probably have a lot more if it wasn’t for poor refereeing and offside decisions. We were clean through five or six times and onside a mile but got pulled up.
“Thankfully we managed to put the score outwith the reach of bad refereeing.”
Liam Park volleyed Threave in front with Brotherston quickly adding the second.
And the forward converted Alex Henderson’s cross just before the break to put Threave three up.
They killed the game off as a contest early in the second half when Brotherston teed up Connor Potts for the fourth, Ross Thomson getting the fifth in fine style midway through the half.
Eglinton scored a consolation goal a quarter of an hour from the end through Dylan Mclintock before Brotherston completed his hat-trick.
Parker added: “We were really good in the second half, still playing with a high tempo and attacking. Before, we maybe tried to keep the ball too much so we just tried to be ruthless.
“We brought on Tam Coles and were still very direct and kept attacking on the front foot for the majority of the game.
“I’ve not been too pleased with the goals we’ve conceded over the past few weeks, but in fairness it’s taken a bit of a deflection and you could see the boys were really angry and frustrated when it went in, which is a good sign. I’d rather not concede but you can see they really care.
“We reacted a minute later, Liam Douglas pinged a perfect ball over their two centre halves and Dean Brotherston finished excellently so the response was fantastic.”
This weekend Threave switch their focus from the fourth division of the West of Scotland League to the SFA South Region Challenge Cup.
The Meadow Park outfit have put out a number of sides from higher tiers of the West of Scotland in previous rounds but on Saturday host Lowland League outfit Caledonian Braves.
Parker said: “A few of us in the changing room have played against them over the years.
“They’re a really good football team, they have some great patterns of play. They must work really hard during the week on their shape, so it’s going to be really difficult.
“It sometimes suits us better when we play against good football teams so it’ll be a test.
“For me it’s a bit of a free hit, the pressure is on them. We’ll look forward to it, try to enjoy it and if we can apply ourselves properly hopefully we can cause a bit of an upset.”
