Lossiemouth assistant manager Ian Campbell has challenged his players to hit the 30-point mark before the end of the season.
The Coasters defeated the Breedon Highland League’s bottom club Fort William 3-1 on Saturday at Grant Park to move onto 25 points.
Only twice since 2012 have Lossie amassed more points and with six games left this term Campbell is in no mood to slow down.
He said: “We’re delighted with the result, it was a tough game and we knew Fort William would be desperate for the points.
“We said to the boys to stick to our gameplan and they did it well.
“I thought in the first half we were by far the better side and were unlucky to lose a goal.
“I don’t think anyone in the ground knew what the referee had given to start with, we thought it was a free-kick and then he gave the goal.
“The referee shouted foul and then he gave the goal. We thought he’d given a foul against our centre-back, but he said he was shouting about the foul earlier on.
“That’s us on 25 points now which is pleasing, we can enjoy our last few games and try to get as high up the table as we can.
“We spoke to the players about it and this at the moment is the third best season in the last 10 years.
“But we’re looking to get more points, we’ll just have to see how we get on.
“Our target was 30 points at the start of the season and we’re still aiming for that.”
Strong start from Coasters
In a lively opening Lossie took the lead in the 12th minute with Ross Morrison’s free-kick headed down by Dean Stewart and Ross Archibald found the bottom right corner with a neat first time finish.
Fort equalised midway through the first period when a free-kick was flicked into the box by Ayibongwe Mabenha and Yves Zama drilled his shot beyond Logan Ross.
The Coasters were unhappy the goal was awarded with referee Filippo Mazzoni initially looking set to award a free-kick before deciding the goal stood.
But parity was restored for only three minutes with Ryan Farquhar’s free-kick from the left picking out Stewart at the front post and he planted a header into the roof of the net.
In first half stoppage time it could have been 3-1 when Ross Archibald’s cross from the right broke for Morrison at the back post, but goalkeeper Matuesz Kulbacki made a superb save at point-blank range.
Mabenha was almost through on goal early in the second period, but lost his balance at the critical moment.
Lossiemouth doubled their lead in the 59th minute. Farquhar released Ross Archibald on the left and his cross picked out James Leslie.
The midfielder missed the ball completely as he tried to volley home, but Niall Kennedy was following in and finished from six yards.
Fort William to their credit kept trying to force their way back into the contest.
But aside from Diste Sylla’s header over in the dying embers they seldom seriously threatened the home goal in the final half hour.
Work to do for Fort
Fort remain eight points adrift at the bottom of the league with 11 games remaining.
Boss Shadab Iftikhar said: “It was a difficult game, we’ve fixed many problems, but there are many more problems to fix.
“It shows where we are and where we can improve and we clearly have some areas where we can still improve.
“We knew what we had to do and set plays are one of those things where you can get it right or get it wrong.
“We controlled the direct approach from Lossiemouth very well, but we should have been better in other areas.
“We focus on the next game and we focus on improving, we still feel we can get off the bottom.”
