Brechin City ran out comfortable 4-0 winners against Keith at Glebe Park thanks to substitute David Cox’s well-taken late double.
A minute’s silence in respect of the late Rothes secretary Garry Davies preceded the game before Brechin made it two wins out of two in the Highland League.
Brechin boss Andy Kirk said: “It’s still a building process for us, but I was pleased with a lot of elements from the game, especially the four goals.
“It’s always tough at the start of a season, but we’ve managed to get two wins out of two.
“It was a difficult first half, Keith were full of energy, but as their tiredeness crept in we capitalised.
“David Cox was desperate to come on and he made a great difference, his two late goals were great.”
It took the Glebe Park men only eight minutes to go ahead with Kieran Inglis pouncing to steer the ball home from six yards.
Eleven minutes into the second half, it was 2-0 when Rory Currie beat Ryan Robertson before neatly curling a low 15 yarder beyond the diving Craig Reid.
Then as visiting legs began to tire, the homesters brought on Cox and young trialist Paul Gillespie with 15 minutes remaining.
Within three minutes, Cox made an impact with a super diving header off a right wing cross from Jamie Bain.
The fourth goal came with the last kick of the game with the alert Cox reacting quickly to slam home from six yards.
FULL TIME RESULT | Brechin City 4-0 Keith
It’s 2 wins from 2 in the Highland League and a third consecutive win in all competitions for City.
Sponsors man of the match was Murray Mackintosh. 👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/1CMwuxy6mj
— Brechin City FC (@BrechinCityFC) July 31, 2021
Keith co-manager Andy Roddie said: “The first half we did okay, but as the game went on we started to tire.
“Brechin showed a lot of good movement and we were chasing a lot, they kept good possession.
“One or two of our players became a bit lazy, and that tells. It’s a good lesson for our boys, let’s them see where they need to get to, but they need to learn from it.”
Formartine United 4-1 Forres Mechanics
Formartine United put the disappointment of their Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup final by Fraserburgh behind them to win in style against Forres Mechanics
The Pitmedden outfit got off to the best possible start with a penalty in only 53 seconds. Andrew Greig was impeded in the box and defender Jonathan Crawford sent the ball confidently the right corner of Stuart Knight’s goal.
Graham Rodger almost made it two soon after, going close with a diving header but on the half hour mark it was 2-0 when on loan Aberdeen striker Kevin Hanratty cut in from the right wing and unleashed an unstoppable left foot strike.
The Can-Cans did well to get back into the game soon after, inspired by a superb strike by Ross Macpherson from 25 yards.
Although the hosts were playing the better football it wasn’t until 74 minutes when they all but made the points safe.
Greig deceived Ruari Fraser and Martin Groat before aiming his low left foot strike trickled through the fingers of Knight.
In a game full of outstanding goals the final goal was arguably the finest, another Dons loanee Tyler Mykyta cleverly curling a left-footed free kick high into the net.
Formartine boss Paul Lawson said: “The early goal allowed us to go and play the football we wanted to play and our performance was excellent all over the park.
“I could name umpteen players who were standouts such as Tyler Mykyta who deserved his goal as he made things happen all over the park.
Alongside him in the engine room, Graeme Rodger produced a real leader’s performance and must have covered every blade of grass.”
Forres boss Charlie Rowley said: “It was a joke of a start, I’m not saying it wasn’t a penalty but it put us on the back foot.
“I expected a wee bit more from the boys but it’s still early in the season.”
