Fraserburgh suffered a setback in their quest for the Breedon Highland League title after being held to a 1-1 draw by Turriff United at Bellslea Park.
Turra boss Dean Donaldson, whose side have won only three of their 27 games this term, praised his players for a dogged display.
He said: “To a man our team was unbelievable, our back four were outstanding.
“We do switch off at times which is something we are working on in training
“It was a wonderful free kick goal from Rory Brown and I thought we may even have kicked on and won the game from there.
“We’ve been playing well for a couple of months and slowly we’re getting better.”
The league leaders went ahead in 14 minutes through ex-Turra striker Gary Harris who netted from close range.
The visitors equalised in the 51 minutes when Brown curled home an exquisite free kick which found the net with the aid of the crossbar.
The Turriff defence had to withstand waves of attacks thereafter with a Kieran Simpson header coming off the crossbar and goalkeeper Tim Findlay making some fine stops.
Broch boss Mark Cowie said: “It’s a setback nobody was expecting.
“We didn’t work our opponents hard enough in the strong wind.
“We were trying to be too nice in the first half, looking for the perfect goal.
“Their goalkeeper must have been happy at half time knowing how little pressure he’d been under.
“In the second half we played well and on another day we’d have scored six or seven. There were good saves and balls didn’t fall for us.
“Turriff defended well. We are still top of the league but the margin for error gets less.
“It’s still in our hands.”
Teamlines for today's Breedon Scottish Highland Football League match between Fraserburgh and Turriff United @SHFLfb @breedongroup #thebroch pic.twitter.com/qEb4KDXPkP
— Fraserburgh FC (@FraserburghFC) February 26, 2022
Wick Academy 0-2 Nairn County
Nairn County produced a hard-working display to leave Harmsworth Park with all three points.
Wick Academy never really got out of second gear with the win helping County close the gap between the two teams to eight points with Nairn also having three games in hand.
A Conor Gethins strike five minutes from the break and a 70th minute goal from former Strathspey Thistle full back Cameron Lisle separated the sides.
Nairn’s assistant-manager Michael Rae said: “The pitch was soft and bobbly and we set our system up to not give Academy time on the ball, not let them play to their strengths, and I think it worked.
“We signed Cameron Lisle on Friday and he capped off a solid debut by scoring our second goal.
“He started at wing-back in a 3-5-2 formation but by the time he scored we had switched to a back four and he had moved to full-back, so it was a surprise to see our right-back playing at centre forward when he scored the second goal.”
Five minutes from the interval Nairn opened the scoring when Glenn Main played in Gethins who was one-on-one with the home keeper, and although James More blocked the striker’s first effort the Irishman followed up to tap in the rebound.
Updated Highland League table pic.twitter.com/LiprSisqUm
— Wick Academy FC (@WickAcademyFC) February 26, 2022
The game was put to bed in the 70th minute when County midfielder Angus Dey fed Lisle, whose twin brother, Formartine United’s Scott Lisle, scored a hat-trick against the Caithness side three weeks ago, and he made no mistake.
Disappointed Academy player-manager Gary Manson, said: “There’s no way I can claim we deserved to win this match.
“It’s not often this season that I’ve been really disappointed with our performance, but this was certainly one where we didn’t give our best.
Todays teamlines are as follows. pic.twitter.com/V9T2DUGMxH
— Wick Academy FC (@WickAcademyFC) February 26, 2022
“We only created three chances during the game but apart from that we were pretty terrible to be honest.
“Our quality on the ball, composure and positivity were all missing and I don’t know why.”
