Deveronvale picked up their first win of 2020 with a 1-0 victory against Turriff United thanks to a Scott Dunn strike. It was Vale’s first victory since a 3-0 home success against Formartine United four days before Christmas.
Chances were at a premium in a game where the weather was far from ideal as the wind swirled round Princess Royal Park.
The game’s only goal arrived after 72 minutes when a Jody Munro cross was headed back across goal by on-loan Formartine United defender Michael Clark with Dunn credited with the final touch as the ball found the net.
Harry Noble could have made the win more secure with an 18-yard drive, which went just the wrong side of the post six minutes later, while Turriff striker Robert Ward blasted their best opening high over the bar from nine yards just before the home side opened the scoring.
Deveronvale assistant manager Craig Stewart, in charge of the team as Steve Dolan was unavailable due to work commitments, felt his side just deserved to get the victory.
He said: “In really difficult conditions both teams put on a decent game but we controlled the possession and deserved to get the points. We created the better chances over the 90 minutes while we restricted Turriff to just one real chance on goal.
“The only real worry was that we didn’t get a second goal to make the scoreline more comfortable. We haven’t been able to close out games recently but we didn’t make mistakes on the day and it was a performance we were due.
“It was also great to see Dane Ballard back after a year and a half out with his knee injury, while Greg Buchan did well having been signed on loan from Fraserburgh and Max Stewart also showed that his start had been justified.”
Turriff assistant Graeme Mathieson felt one mistake cost his side a share of the points.
He said: “I thought we deserved something from the game as we coped really well with the wind in the first half.
“I told the players at the break it can be just as difficult to play with the wind and a silly mistake saw us let their player run 40 yards into the box and get a free header for the goal.
“We didn’t create much apart from Robert Ward’s effort but it was a much-improved display from our previous game against Fort William.
“We asked the players to show a reaction to let the supporters and people at the club know they are fully committed to Turriff and a lot of them showed that on the day.
“For us the objective was to try to get something from the game but, unfortunately, it just didn’t quite happen.
“We also gave a debut to Danail Dimov, who we have recently signed from Peterhead, while Banff lad Owen Christie was a trialist who came on. They both did well.”
