Strathspey Thistle and Wick Academy shared the spoils in a thrilling encounter at Seafield Park with the Scorries grabbing a well-deserved point with a late equaliser.
Academy passed up numerous chances throughout the 90 minutes with the Grantown Jags defending doggedly to secure back-to-back draws in their first two league outings.
Strathspey boss Charlie Brown said: “I think a draw was a fair result and our boys were really disappointed they couldn’t hold on to take all three points. We have a very young squad who will get better as the season goes on.
“Kieran Chalmers scored with a brilliant free-kick, even though he didn’t want to take it at the time.
“It was Kris Duncan who convinced him to have a pop and thankfully the ball flew high into the roof of the net.
“We could have taken six points from our first two league games, as it is we’ve drawn them both and we can take a bit of confidence from that when we travel to Mosset Park to face my old team Forres Mechanics in a game I’m really looking forward to.”
Academy opened the scoring in the 24th minute when Gordon McNab’s 12-yard angled grounder beat Robert Donaldson, though the home keeper did manager to get a hand to the ball.
Four minutes from the break Strathspey Thistle equalised when Academy keeper Graeme Williamson came out of his box to clear the ball but he could only find Jags’ Kieran Chalmers who squared it to Craig MacKenzie who showed composure great to curl the ball around a Wick defender and into the unguarded net.
Strathspey shocked the Scorries when they took the lead four minutes after the restart, skipper James McShane turning home a Jake Thomson cross from virtually on the line.
In the 74th minute Wick levelled when Donaldson made a brilliant save from Jack Halliday but Mark Macadie followed up to net the rebound.
But four minutes later Strathspey midfielder Kieran Chalmers netted the goal of the game with a brilliant 30-yard free-kick that found the top corner.
Academy should have made it 3-3 two minutes later but McNab’s effort was brilliantly cleared off the line by the backtracking Liam McDade.
However, Academy levelled with three minutes to go when defender McDade could only turn McNab’s close-range shot into his own net.
Wick boss Gary Manson felt his side had done more than enough to take all three points.
He said: “It was definitely two points dropped for us, even though we scored a relatively late equaliser to get a draw.
“On the balance of the chances, we had about 10 really good ones, and the goals we conceded were all quite easily avoidable but it’s another point on the board.
“It was a case of missed chances at one end and sloppy defending at the other, as well as a couple of contentious refereeing decisions but overall we just weren’t clinical enough in the final third.”
