Lorna Macrae comes to the four in Caley Thistle win in season opener against Westdyke
IT was an explosive start – and just what Caley Thistle women’s team manager Karen Mason had demanded from day one.
The Championship North club has unashamedly declared title success the big goal this season and they were off to a flyer with a 5-1 triumph over Westdyke at Canal Park.
While it was a fine team performance, summer signing Lorna Macrae – back in the sport after a six-year break – stole the limelight with a startling four-goal show in the first 20 minutes.
Kayleigh Mackenzie tucked away the fifth in the second half and it might have been worse for the Aberdeenshire visitors had Mason not experimented with her side after the break.
“After such a long lay-off, it was good to get straight back into winning ways,” Mason said. “The girls started off at a really high tempo, so that was a real positive. They came out with all guns blazing. Lockdown was hard for everybody and they have trained for six weeks now, so were raring to go.
“Everyone is really fired up because we’ve set ourselves the challenge of going all out to win the title this year. We wanted to set a standard for ourselves.”
As for Macrae – also a Scotland shinty internationalist – the performance promised much.
“That’s what she has been brought in to do. She’s powerful, she’s quick,” Mason stressed. “She’s a good finisher and did exactly what we asked of her.
“She played for us at Inverness City five or six years ago and, over lockdown, she decided she wanted to come back in and play. We were happy to see she still had the same ability she did back then. She’d kept her fitness up through her other sports, despite being out of competitive football for a while now.
“The girls know she has the pace to get onto through balls. Her movement and reading of the game are excellent.
“She has really fitted in nicely and looks like being someone we can rely on week-in, week-out.”